


Exulansis

by DollBlood



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Absent Parents, Character Death?, Chloe Bourgeois is a lesbian, Depression, Gen, Grey scale morality, Hawk Moth is Gabriel Agreste, Islamophobia, Name Changes, OC-centric, Transphobia, does it count if he comes back to life?, doesnt mean they grow into good people, everyone grows as people, he gets beat up a lot, its like half angst half happy, oc is a bit of a drama queen, oc is ftm, paris has no idea who the villains are anymore?, theres gonna be gore, this is a story about personal growth, trans OC
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-30
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2018-07-19 07:48:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 38,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7352284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DollBlood/pseuds/DollBlood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He just wanted people to see him as a guy. It's not his fault that becoming an evil henchman for Paris's most wanted was the only thing that seemed to work. He's doing what he needs to survive in this day and age.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Our Man Saw His Future Drip, Dripping Down the Drain

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not very sure how well-received this is gonna be, seeing as how different it is from other ML stories, especially ML stories with ocs? for one thing, the main character is a trans male and a poc? I'm not changing a thing, cause we all need more representation, but if you don't like it, please don't comment. I don't need that kind of negativity right now.  
> On another note, our favorite heroes aren't really portrayed as heroes in this. I want to say that now, so that y'all don't feel like I led you on. I love Chat and Ladybug, but they are still just little kids and should not have been put in charge of protecting people.
> 
> If you're still reading this, then buckle up! this is gonna be a bumpy ride, like nothing you've ever read before ;3c

 

There is a time and place to take a nap. The middle of an Akuma attack is neither of these.

Opia Belmonte was desperately trying to wake his lab partner, Veronica, from her weird sleep schedule before the monster could reach their classroom so they could properly hide, but it wasn't doing much good. Neither of Paris's favorite superheroes had shown up, and he was really questioning their timing with most other attacks. Was every other time just a fluke? He couldn't dwell on that, though. Veronica had to move and hopefully not knock over their tube of calcium hydroxide on the way. She'd kill him, he was sure, if she got something dangerous on her while passed out.

The slamming of a door down the hall made him more desperate, and in a burst of adrenaline, grabbed Veronica around her waist and dragged her down to the ground. Between two cabinets on the floor of a Chem lab was not the safest place to hide, but he didn't know where else to go. Maybe listening to music during a lab when his lab partner was narcoleptic was a bad idea. It's an easy way to miss directions, at least.

The door burst open, and he held tightly to Veronica. If anything, she could be a human shield.

"Ms. Opia Belmonte?" A small voice asked, and he cringed before peaking out from behind the cabinets.

Ladybug was standing in the doorway, looking around. He waved to get her attention.

"Oh! Your teacher asked me to find you! She said she must've missed you while evacuating. It's best if you come out now, school will be postponed until tomorrow for everyone to recover."

"Okay, can you help me with my lab partner? She's asleep." He struggled to stand and hold Veronica at the same time. Ladybug rushed over and carried half her weight to help him out of the classroom.

* * *

 

The akuma had been a student from another class down. He didn't know them, but apparently, they had quite a grudge against their Literature teacher. The day after the attack, they weren't in school.

Protocol called for all akumatized civilians to go through police screening and a therapist session. If anything, the social sciences had become a top career to go into in Paris, France.

It didn't help Opia with his problem, though.

A new school year, a new classroom, and yet, still the same old pronouns.

He thought Spain was bad with misgendering? At least he had a few friends who saw him as another guy. So far, France was a big disappointment.

The superheroes were cool, but if they weren't spouting equal rights as well as crime-fighting? Forget it.

Opia snapped the strap of his binder against his shoulder as he walked across a bridge. He was pretty sure it had a lot of meaning to some people. There were locks covering the railing. At this point, he couldn't really care less. Other people didn't matter if they didn't care about how to address him.

He sat down and ran his hands through his light brown hair. Maybe he was overreacting.

Some middle-schoolers ran by, laughing and jumping around as they teased each other, and he smiled. Kids were pretty great, at least. Big open eyes, taking in the world for the first time, it was a time like that when he found out who he was. It was a different time, a different place.

The locks on the bridge railing dug into his back as he sat up straight, an idea coming to his mind. An idea like this was something he could get behind. He snapped his binder strap against his shoulder and stood up again. There was a volunteer sign-up in his high school activities office, hopefully they were still open. If not, he had a plan for tomorrow.

* * *

 

They were open. There weren't a lot of volunteering opportunities at the time, but there were some, and there was the one that really mattered.

Every year, he remembered a few volunteer high-schoolers would go to various junior high schools to mentor a class or two.

There were five openings left, out of seven.

When Opia left the office that day, there were four left.

 


	2. There's A Million things I Haven't Done...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a few butterflies were harmed in the making of this chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keep in mind that Opia's trans* experience is not every trans* person's experience. But, his problems reflect my own problems with getting people to use my proper name and pronouns. I know many other trans* people who do not have a huge problem with transitioning, but for whatever reason, the people around me just refuse to change. thank you and goodnight.

 He got let out of his science class early for the volunteer position. No more sleepy lab partner, but enough time in there to learn what to look up in the book at home. Enough time to take a test or quiz, if need be.

From one Chem class to a physical science class he went.

 The middle schoolers were adorable, all so much smaller than him. When he and the other high schoolers came to their campus, most of them gawked. They weren't used to the big kids, it seemed. Opia smiled at all the kids they passed on their way to the Dean's office, to be assigned a class.

 The dean was... Well he was  _someone_. That could be said. Right off the bat, he mispronounced a tall, black girl's name.

 "Ms. Man-grey?"

 "It's Mangry, sir. Short for Mangrove, like the tree."

 "Yes, yes. Man-grey. That's what I said. You will work with Mr. Nolan's Gym class. Here is your pass and the room number." He distractedly gave her two pieces of paper as he read through a binder. He waved for the next person, and continued in a similar form up till Opia came forward.

 "Ms. Opia?"

 "Mr, sir."

"I'm sorry?"

 "Sir, I prefer male pronouns. I am trans."

 The dean looked him up and down, sniffed, then looked back at his binder.

 "Here's your pass and room number. Good luck  _sir._ "

 The contempt in his voice was clear, but Opia was fairly used to it. Adults didn't like to be corrected.

* * *

The class was on the second story, near the office. Opia knocked on the door hesitantly, and a lovely red headed woman answered.

 "Ah, um, ma'am, my name is Opia Belmonte, I'm a volunteer high school student to help with your class."

 Her eyes lit up and she held her hand out.

"How wonderful! Thank you for your help!" She said, shaking his hand, then turned abruptly and addressed the class. "Class, this is Opia Belmonte, she is here and a volunteer to help our class."

 "Ah, um, ma'am? I am a boy." He corrected her, but she continued on anyways, as if she hadn't heard him.

 "Everyone, please welcome her!"

 The class gave a monotonous "hello" to him, and his heart sank. The teacher wasn't even giving him the time of day.

 He sat at a chair at the back of class and watched her teach. She clearly didn't need any help, but some of the kids did seem a bit rowdy. Or, at least, distractable.

 One boy near the back, closer to Opia, was drawing throughout the whole class. One of the drawings looked quite a bit like a girl closer to the front.

 Ah, an artist and his muse.

 There wasn't anything for him to do, so listening to a few songs wouldn't hurt, would it? He'd already learned all of this, anyways. He hummed quietly to a musical's soundtrack, and glazed over as the teacher taught the class about hydrogen bonds.

 What seemed like a few minutes later, he was nearing the end of his playlist and a bell rang to signal the end of the day. The students were packing up to leave and Opia stood and stretched.

 Time sure flies when you listen to historical raps.

 The artist kid was standing up, so he walked over and patted the kid on the shoulder. The kid jumped and turned to him nervously.

 "Y-yeah?"

 "I saw you drawing earlier," Opia glanced at his bag, where some pages with doodles threatened to escape. The kid looked more nervous.

"I think you're an awesome artist. You're really good."

 Poor kid looked about ready to piss his pants until he heard the compliment.

 "O-oh... Thank you! You're really nice, Ms. Belmonte!"

 "Ah." He grimaced. "Yeah. No problem."

* * *

Opia grumbled as he walked across that same bridge from before. Some of the looser locks clinked against the railing in the wind that was picking up.

 What a day. He went to that volunteer thing to open younger kids' minds to the Trans community, but he couldn't even get a word in otherwise. This was a downward slope, and the sides were far too slick to crawl back up.

 He snapped the strap of his binder angrily as he leaned against the railing. There really wasn't anything he could do.

 Nothing.

 

He was... Nothing.

 

He could just...

 

 

Become...

 

 

 

Nothing.

 

 

 

 

He didn't realize he had climbed up onto the railings of the bridge, perched, leaning forward until someone behind him screamed. The unexpected sound and a burst of wind pushed him forward, and he fell.

 Heh.

 Well, he would've anyways.

 There wasn't much he could do here dead or alive.

 A flash of black and purple raced across his vision as he fell, closer and closer to the cold water below, and there was an odd tingle on his shoulder.

 He blacked out before he hit the water.

* * *

Dysphoria groaned as he stretched.

  _"Ah... My apologies, I'm afraid I had to give you power without your consent. You were not exactly in a position to give it, and I didn't want you to die."_

 What?

 He looked around, but there was no one else around him at twenty feet up in the air.

 Wait, what?

 He looked down, passed his elfish-looking green shoes, to a crowd of people staring up at him from a bridge.

 Why was he wearing those shoes? Dear god he would never wear shoes that curled in normally.

 "Oh my god."

  _"Dysphoria, I am Hawkmoth. I gave you power so that you could help me with a... Project of mine."_

 One of the people in the crowd below pointed up at him and shouted, "look! He's woken up!" Another wondered, quite loudly, "I wonder why he's different from the other Akumas?"

  _"I gave you the power to do to people, what they do to you, in exchange for... Dysphoria, do you hear me?"_

 "You want the miraculous from ladybug and chat noir?"

 Dysphoria was ecstatic. Staring down at the crowd, where the people were calling him a  _him_. Sweet mother Mary, all it took was him turning evil? Wearing some hideous clothes and... Did he have wings? It sure as hell felt like it. His binder was on the outside of his body, now, which was odd. But it also seemed to have become an intricate plate of armor.

 He was a butterfly knight. Nice.

  _"Ah... Yes. I require them in order-"_

 "I'll get those for you now, then."

  _"I- what? Boy, don't you wish to-"_

 "Buddy!" Dysphoria laughed, even though he was so close to tears. "All I've wanted was for people to see me as male! This is the single best day of my  _life_!"

 " _Oh. I... See? I apologize, although maybe I shouldn't. I didn't see you as anything else when I chose you."_

 "That just makes it better, oh my god."

 He flew over the city, looking for the superheroes everyone loved, but saw no trace of them. Maybe he had to lure them out a bit. He flew closer to people, and, with the instinctual motion of shooting his finger like a gun, he released an orange burst at a random person. They immediately began dry heaving and scratching at their chest.

 Huh.

 He could remember days where he had woken up exactly like that.

 He looked at his hand, and tried to remember what Hawkmoth said he did.

  _You will do to people what they do to you._

 His name is dysphoria.

 Oh.

 He quickly pointed at another citizen and whispered, "Bang."

 Another burst of orange exploded from his finger tip, and his victim stood stock still, staring into the distance, looking to be going into some form of shock. The next had the symptoms as the first.

 It seemed as if his attacks switched between "feel disgusting in your own skin" and "debilitating existential despair."

 Two more people were down when a flash of black and red graced him with her presence. He grinned and turned to Ladybug.

 "Stop it right now! What are you even trying to do?" She yelled.

 "Finally here to join my party? It's about time! Where is your partner? I do hope he's not taking a sick day."

 "I am feline fine, evil-doer." Chat said from the side, where he was walking up calmly. "Now, are we gonna do this the hard way or the easy way?"

 "Depends, which way ends up with those miraculous in my hands?"

 Ladybug and Chat Noir shared a look, and looked him over again. Lady's gaze lingered just passed his shoulder, where his wings were visible.

 "Are... You the real Hawkmoth? No Akuma has directly wanted them before. Not... Like this."

 She seemed overly concerned, and Dysphoria laughed.

 "No! I'm not my  _boss_! The name's Dysphoria! But I'm doing a job here, and to do it, I'm gonna need those miraculous."

 "You can't have them! No way!" Chat yelled with a grimace.

 "Well I didn't expect it to be easy." Dysphoria shrugged. "But I will get those pretty little things."

 He floated up a bit, pointed his finger gun at Chat, and fired away one of his blasts. Chat rolled out of the way, missing the attack for the most part, except his foot. When he stood again, he stumbled and looked down at his foot in disgust.

 "What  _is_ that?" He asked with a bit of a gag.

 "Chat, that's your foot." Ladybug said slowly, teasingly.

 "My foot? Christ, that's gross."

 "Ok, what did you do?" Ladybug asked Dysphoria, who only laughed. He leaned back and kicked his feet in the air.

 "Oooh! He should see his face! Look at how disgusted he is with himself! Hey! Chat! How's your foot?"

 Chat flinched back and hissed at him, pointedly ignoring his own foot.

 "Seriously! What did you do?"

 "Well you see, Lady Luck," Dysphoria said as he walked in circles above her. If he had a cane, he would've been twirling it. "There is such a thing called body dysphoria. Different people react to it in different ways, but the easiest way to describe it, is being uncomfortable with your own body. Trans* folk generally have it. Imagine not feeling comfortable in your own skin, little bug. Just. Imagine it." He stopped and tapped his chin in thought, glancing down at the superhero slyly.

 "Actually, you don't have to imagine it, I can give you front row seat to the whole experience!"

 He turned to her quickly and shot one of his blasts at her, but she seemed to have anticipated it from all his monologuing. Maybe he was falling into classic villain archetypes too easily. Either way, she dodged him and jumped away to a safer distance. Chat followed her slower, as he was still dealing with an uncooperative foot.

 She glared up at him, her eyes darting back and forth, trying to make a plan of attack as Dysphoria laughed down at them. He really didn't expect Ladybug to shout "Lucky Charm!" And throw her yo-yo above her head, completely missing him.

 "Wait, what are you..." He stopped laughing and watched her curiously. She was holding a pair of red and black polka dotted scissors.An idea seemed to form for her, as she turned to Chat and began signaling to him, trying to get him to stop messing with his foot.

Dysphoria was aware of what happened to Akumas when ladybug had an idea. He wasn't stupid. And that's why he quickly turned tail and ran (or flew) away from the two.

 " _What are you doing, Dysphoria? Get their miraculous!"_

 "Easy for you to say, boss, don't you know what happens to your workers when Ladybug gets her little power up thing? If I stuck around, I'd be toast. Here's to hoping she'll run out of power before she catches me."

 Hawkmoth didn't answer, but Dysphoria hoped it was because he thought he was the smartest henchman he'd had yet.

 "Not so fast, butterfly!" Ladybug shouted at him. She was running along beneath him, and held onto Chat's pole weapon.

 "Uh, actually, the name's Dysphoria! You oughta learn your enemy's names!"

 He suddenly had the air knocked out of him as a weight came down on him from above. Chat had somehow made his way onto the rooftops, and jumped onto his back. He managed to stay airborne, but was significantly lower to the ground, and had to now fight a leather clad cat boy.

 "Give up!" Chat hissed as he covered Dysphoria's eyes. Honestly, the guy was more of a nuisance than a real threat.

 "No way!" He responded, grabbing Chat's hands and moving them away from his face so he could see.

 And see he did. A face full of a black and green ring, that is. He smirked as his hand slid down to Chat's fingers, he got his fingers on the metal; warmed from the sun and body heat. In the back of his head, he could hear Hawkmoth cheering.

 Then his chest was hit with a pressure akin to a large bullet, and he toppled to the ground. Chat rolled a ways away, mostly unhurt, though looking a little scared at how close Dysphoria had gotten to his ring. Ladybug walked up and put her foot on Dysphoria's chest, though he was sure he wasn't going anywhere. There was a good chance he was concussed, at best. He couldn't see where ladybug's spots started or stopped. And unless someone had a very obnoxious ringtone, he was sure the world was not supposed to be ringing like that. How far did he fall? Fifteen feet? At least. Plus all that momentum from flying. He should learn how to fall.

 Oh.

 Ladybug just cut through his binder. Apparently the straps weren't so armor-y. A little black and purple butterfly flew out of it, and she captured it in what would have been an impressive show of spinning, had he not been feeling especially dizzy and nauseous.

A tingle went through his whole body and he just managed to turn himself over onto his stomach so he could retch onto the street. When he looked up, ladybug and Char Noir were looking down at him in shock.

 "Y-you never seen a guy puke before?" He hissed, head racked with pain as he spoke. Oh boy. He definitely hit something hard.

 "Ms. Opia?" Ladybug whispered. He looked down at himself and saw he was in his previous clothes, and sighed.

 "Wow, I've never seen Hawkmoth turn someone into the opposite sex before." Chat said. "What a jerk."

 Opia sighed and groaned.

 "Call the paramedics, please..." He pleaded.

 "What? You're really hurt?" Ladybug asked, kneeling down next to him. "How? I used my powers?"

 "You dropped me fifteen feet in the air, kid, ain't no powers gonna reverse broken ribs and brain damage. You'd be world famous by now if that's the case."

 "My lady, let me take care of the patient. Your time is almost up." Chat said. Ladybug lightly touched her earring, which Opia still eyed longingly, though neither hero noticed.

 "You're right. You call an ambulance and the police. I'll be in touch with you later." She got up and hopped away somewhere. Opia didn't care to watch her leave, rather he closed his eyes and wished for death instead of the pain in his head, chest, and low throbbing in his back.

 "Hey, Opia." Chat said idly. He was using his weapon as a phone, hopefully calling the paramedics. "The hospital wants to know what you're experiencing, so they know what they're dealing with."

 "Mmmm..." He groaned, throwing his head to the side to try to relieve some pressure in his head. "Pain."

 Chat chuckled. Opia would have frowned if he wasn't already. That definitely wasn't a joke.

 "They'll be here soon. Said to keep you awake. You wanna hear some jokes?"

 Opia sighed and stared at the sky to try to have an out of body experience. Anywhere was better than here, with the greatest misgendering hero Paris has ever known.


	3. . . . But Just You Wait

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are repercussions for fighting as an evil henchman.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kinda a filler chapter? It's weird to be writing my oc Veronica as a teenager again, since I usually focus on her adult life. She's... Something else. I don't want to spoil anything about her, even though She's not very important lol.
> 
> If y'all're interested, [ here is my Tumblr](https://qu33nbeee.tumblr.com/)

 

 

"Have you ever had any suicidal thoughts or actions?"

"Yes."

"For how long?"

"...years? I don't remember ever  _not_  wanting to die."

"Is this what triggered your transformation?"

"I don't know."

The therapist looked at Opia oddly. She seemed suspicious of him for whatever reason.

"You don't remember what caused you to become an akuma?"

"Yeah. Not a clue. I was on a bridge, I was falling off the bridge, and then I woke up twenty five feet in the air."

"You remember being an akuma?"

"Yeah?"

She looked at her clipboard and frowned.

"Because of that, ma'am, and the fact that you do not seem upset by your actions, I am going to write you a referral to a psychiatrist. It is not required, but I  do suggest going to at least one session of either that, or an akuma victims support group."

"Any thing else?" He sighed. He had been so tired lately. Once the therapist used 'ma'am,' any semblance of energy he had just seeped out of him.

The hospital held him overnight, to treat a concussion and bruised ribs. One of the lowest was nearly fractured, and the doctors claimed that, had he fallen or skidded just a bit harder, it would have shattered. They sent him off with a prescription pain medicine and a back brace in case it started hurting too much.

Neither Chat Noir nor Ladybug visited to apologize for all the hurt they put him through.

He gave the therapist his phone number, so that she could contact him about support groups, and left the hospital in a daze

* * *

The day was bright and sunny. There were middle schoolers playing around on a bridge, and his shoulders slumped as he walked passed them.

"Ms. Opia!" One of the kids called out. He turned and saw it was the artist kid from that class he was in for one day. He doubted he would go back, or even could, after the akuma incident.

The kid raced up to him with a worried expression.

"Are you ok? I heard you became an akuma."

"I'm fine, kid." He turned to continue on his way, but the guy followed him.

"I heard Hawkmoth changed your gender when you were an akuma. Are you sure you're alright?"

Opia stopped and took a deep breath. Nosey much? He turned slowly and gave the boy a smile.

"No, buddy, you've got it wrong. Hawkmoth got the right gender." He said smoothly, not breaking his smile. "It's everybody else whose got it all fucked up. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go home and rest because Chat Noir and Ladybug nearly broke my rib cage."

Without another word, he turned and continued walking. The kid didn't follow.

The streets bustled with afternoon activity. Some shopkeepers swept the outside of their stores, some people shared drinks and conversations. Opia headed for a small one bedroom apartment where his mother waited, probably ready to interrogate him on where he'd been.

He mentally prepared himself as he opened the door, cringing in anticipation of a shout, but none came.

He walked into a quiet apartment and set his stuff on the couch. The main room was split in half; one side for the tv and couch, the other for the small kitchen. There was a note on the kitchen table where he and his mother had shared many a rushed breakfasts before work and school.

He picked up the note and scanned it as he went to the fridge.

 

_'Opia; whenever you get home, know that you are in big trouble for not telling me where you were. A call home never hurt anyone. I went out with some friends, and I should be back sometime in the early morning. Good news when I come back, if you're here!'_

 

Hisand his mother's health insurance was still under his father's name, so of course the hospital hadn't gotten in contact with his mom. Did they really call some dead-weight parent in Spain, though? That was the only number on his records. He really needed to get those updated.

He found a juice box in the back of the fridge, and after checking the expiration date (two days left) he popped the straw in and went to the couch.

Shoving his things aside, he turned on the small tv and laid back, relishing in fruit punch and infomercials.

He fell asleep while watching a man scream about apple slices.

* * *

He woke up when his mother came home, slightly drunk.

"Opia! There's my darling daughter!" His mother brightened when she saw him. She was a small woman, plump, with short brown hair (still growing back from her fight with cancer when he was only eight years old) and her eyes were a cold steel grey that, god, he wished he inherited instead of his father's hazel.

"I've got great news, sweetie! I got pruh-pre-promoted today! My salahry is gonna be increased ten percent!" She stumbled over her words in her drunken daze, but it did nothing to quell how excited she was.

"I'll be able to pay our bills sooner!"

He got up off the couch with a wince as his ribs still ached, but he smiled at her nonetheless.

"That's great mom. Um... But... How much is left over? Because the city pays for any damages left by Akumas, but usually that's more mental health work, and the patient still has to pay a percentage."

"Don't worry, sweetie, even if we get caught up in something like that, we'll be well off enough to pay for any five percent or wha-whatevur it is."

She began stumbling down the hall to her room and the bathroom, and Opia followed slowly, wrapping his arms around himself. His mom stopped suddenly and turned around as if remembering she had to do something.

"Wait, where were you? Y-you didn't come home last night."

"Mom, I was involved in an akuma attack."

"You better not be shitting me for attention, girl."

He flinched and shook his head.

"I was hospitalized for the night... I... Ladybug nearly shattered one of my ribs."

His mother studied him, trying to find any lies in his face, but she eventually came closer and lifted his shirt, to see the blue green bruise splattered across his lower ribs.

"I also had a concussion. We need to update the health insurance, because it's still under dad's name and I think that's who they called about me."

"That gringo wouldn't give two shits about what is happening to us. You're right. I'll sh-see what I can do tomorrow."

She let his shirt fall and dusted it off, then looked up at him with sad eyes.

"Are you ok, mija?"

"I'm... Really sore. I'll be ok, but I'm still a little dizzy and my ribs hurt when I move too much."

She nodded slowly, solemnly, then stood on her tip-toes and gave him a hard smack on his forehead.

"Ow-ow-ow!!" He hissed, stumbling back a bit.

"That doesn't excuse you not calling! Hospitals have phones! You better make me dinner tomorrow to make up for all that stress you put me through! Now go to bed, it's three in the morning, you're keeping me up!"

"Mom, I've got a head injury!" He whined.

"Oh shush, I'm drunk!" She cackled and went off to brush her teeth and pass out in her room.

Opia chuckled a bit, and went back to the couch, which became a pullout bed for him. He moved the small table to the corner of the room and put his bed together, then checked the bathroom to see if it was free.

His mom was just stepping out, and he rushed in before she could change her mind.

He spent a solid five minutes flossing and brushing his teeth, then jumped in the shower to wash the hospital feel off of himself. He should've done it sooner, but he had just been so tired. He wasn't going to school in the morning, anyways.

* * *

His mom kept him from school until the next week. Given, she made him do shopping and cleaning around the house, but he didn't have to deal with school, so he was pretty happy.

When he did finally go back, people gave him odd looks, but it seemed like his disappearance had already left the gossip radar, and, for some reason, had its sights set on his lab partner.

Veronica Wilson was the daughter of a surgeon and a travel agent who was rarely home. But they had connections and were the type of people to get invited to cocktail parties with the prime minister of England.

Maybe he had a little jealously towards her, for having such a wealthy life style.

But from what he heard from her, when she talked to him during labs, was that her parents were pretty harsh. They followed the rule that children are things to be seen, not heard, and she suffered some sort of emotional damage from it. She didn't outright say it that way, but he picked it up in just the way she spoke. She was succinct, compelling, and could probably get into the world records book for being a human thesaurus.

She still irritated him to no end, though.

But that still didn't quell his curiosity of why everyone was whispering about her in the hallway.

So when the afternoon Chem lab came around, he sat down next to where she sat, face down on the desk. He thought she was asleep, until he reached out to wake her for class.

"I'm awake."

"That's a first." He tried to joke, but he got no response. There were three minutes until the bell rang, so he had time to ask.

"Are you ok? What happened?"

"You haven't heard?" She grumbled, not lifting her head from her arms.

"I generally avoid gossip cause I don't know what's real. And I was out the last few days due to turning into an akuma."

She shifted a bit, reached one hand out, and grabbed onto his wrist. It jolted him, since this was the first time she willingly touched him.

"You're... You're really not okay, are you?"

Her grip tightened for a moment, then she shook her head.

"Well... You can talk to me if you need to."

She turned her head to look at him through a curtain of her black hair. Her eyes were a cold ice blue, almost frosty like she was blind. But he had seen her read instructions from the board across the room, so he knew she didn't have any kind of hindered sight.

"My... Two days ago my parents were driving home from a business party for my mom. It... Was really stormy where they were driving through."

Opia remembered a night where there was moisture in the air, from a storm just on the outskirts of the city. He nodded as he remembered the taste of distant petrichor in the air.

"They... I called my mom to find out when they were coming home... They were distracted by something, an animal, maybe? All I heard was my mom screaming and shattering glass."

She looked to the side, at the edge of the desk, and she pulled his wrist a little closer. She looked so worn out.

"They're dead."

The bell rang as the rest of the class took their seats, and Veronica let go of his wrist, turning back face down on the desk.

Opia sat in shock of the news. He should watch the news more often.

Class went on, but as students started getting ready for the lab - seeing how different chemical flames looked through Cobalt glass - the teacher came to their table and sat on the edge. Opia looked up at her quizzically, but she lust looked sad.

"Veronica, you are allowed to not do this lab, if you don't feel up to it."

She shook her head and didn't move, so the teacher turned to Opia.

"Since it's not safe to do it alone, you can join another group, but I know you had a bad incident not long ago, so I won't dock points if you sit this one out."

"... I'll stay with Veronica, Ms. Fuentes. " He gently rested his fingers against Veronica's wrist and she seemed to relax just a bit.

Ms. Fuentes nodded and went to her desk.

Opia had a lot of makeup work to finish before the next day, so he pulled out some Calc work and went at it. Occasionally, he would give Veronica a gentle pat on the back when he heard her quiet breaths speed up, and she would slowly relax ever so slightly.

About midway through class, though, they had a disruption.

The door opened just enough for the man to peek his head in, and Ms. Fuentes stood up at the sight of him.

Gabriel Agreste rarely left his office. Even for his own son. For him to come to a high school was even stranger than seeing him off screen.

He talked quietly to Ms. Fuentes, then made his way over to him and Veronica, who had looked up just the slightest bit.

"Ms. Wilson, I wished to give you my condolences." Opia tensed. He knew that voice from somewhere. Mr. Agreste sounded different than he did on TV. His voice was slightly deeper, more pronounced.

"I apologize, I will not be able to make it to the funeral on Friday."

Veronica nodded and rubbed her right eye.

"It's... Not your fault, Mr. Agreste."

"It was my party they attended. Had they not been there, this all would not have happened."

Opia openly stared at the man. He knew that voice. He  _knew it_. But he couldn't place it.

"Young man, it's not polite to stare."

Opia blinked and looked around, but all the other students were working and not looking their way. He looked back at the man and cleared his throat.

"M-me?"

"Yes, you." He rolled his eyes. Opia never thought men like him rolled their eyes. He also never thought men like him would refer to him as a man. The only other person to do so so easily was...

His eyes went wide with recognition as he sat up straight. Veronica gave him a snort of laughter before falling silent again.

"S-sorry sir, I just- you just..." He was back to staring, but this time in awe. "Never thought I'd see you so close..."

Gabriel Agreste narrowed his eyes at Opia, but dropped it and returned to his conversation with Veronica. After he apologized for her loss again, he said his goodbyes with barely a second glance at him and left. Veronica turned just a bit so she could face him more easily.

"You're a good guy, Opia."

"W-what?" This was all a bit too much. "Really?" He wasn't asking about him being a good person, and Veronica seemed to know that.

"You're just too quiet when you correct people. You should practice speaking from your gut instead of your chest. It'll make your voice deeper too."

"O-oh, thanks. That's... Actually helpful." He sat in shock for a moment, then furrowed his brows and turned to her fully. "Um... Would you..."

"I'm leaving to England right after the funeral." She interrupted, once again catching him off guard.

"England?" He scrunched his nose in distaste.

"My aunt lives there. She's my last living family member. All week I'm booked with lawyer visits and people sending condolences."

He looked down and tightened his right hand into a fist.

"Well... I hope you have fun with your aunt."

"I doubt it. It always rains there. The school is nothing like this one. There aren't cool fashion designers interrupting my classes." The last comment was supposed to be sarcastic, but Veronica's way of speaking was so monotonous, she sounded as if Gabriel Agreste interrupted her classes everyday.

Opia snorted, and she looked a bit grateful that he had gotten that it was a joke.

"I... I probably won't be coming to school the rest of the week. If I don't see you again, I want to tell you that I am grateful for you always listening to me."

"Ah, don't thank me yet. Half the time I was listening to music."

She looked offended as he looked back at her with a wide smirk, and winked. She blinked out of the scowl she had been wearing, turning more into shock, then huffed a laugh and looked back at the desk.

"You... Are a good guy. But Opia, don't let anyone take advantage of you for it. There are... Terrible things in the world. There's good too, but you'll hear about the bad far more." She reached out and rested her hand on his shoulder. Her grip was a lot stronger than he had anticipated. She leveled a strong glare at him that made his blood run cold. He never thought she could look anything like this.

"I will do what I can to fix injustices, but it takes time. In the meantime, Opia, do what you need to in order to survive. The strong leave the weak in the dust. Do you want to be choked out, or do you want to breathe easy and fly free?"

She gave his shoulder a tight squeeze, then picked up her things and left the room with a quick wave at their teacher. The woman nodded in understanding as she bustled out, leaving Opia in a bit a of a trance state.

Whether she did it on purpose or not, Opia would never find out. She would be long gone by the time he would get the chance to go visit her. But her words had him remembering wind in his hair and armor on his skin, and the smell of the air as it filled his lungs fully for the first time he could properly remember.


	4. What's Your Name, Man?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New names, new digs, what's next? a new job- oh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yo, it's been a while! I started college, but mostly the delay was because i dont plan chapters and tend to write whatever, whenever, which tends to take forever.  
> ive started next chapter, which i promise will be more interesting than this one, but im planning for a lot of shit to happen and writing that is :/ hard

Veronica was completely unreachable after school. He asked her few friends if he could call her, and they were nice enough to let him use one of their phones, but she didn't pick up. They wouldn't tell him where she lived, and her email had been deactivated. She seemed to have decided to completely leave this part of her life in the dust.

Whether or not that meant she saw them all as weaker than her, he would much, much later come to understand.

* * *

But now, after school was his time to go to the survivors group meeting. The therapist at the hospital had called him and explained that the group would simply describe what each person felt and went through during their time as Akumas. It wasn't often people fully remembered becoming one, so it was a fairly small group.

He walked down the street, kicking a pebble until he lost it under a wrought iron fence. He glared at the pebble as if it personally attacked him, then sighed and looked up.

He froze.

Before him was the gate to the Agreste estate.

He looked back at the pebble, considering the chances that he had kicked it just a little too far left as he passed by this house- No, not house. It's more like a mansion.

Oh, how he and his mom would kill to live somewhere like that.

As he stared up at the fine estate, with time ticking closer to the point where the meeting would start without him, he was struck with what Veronica had told him before.

" _Opia, do what you need to in order to survive._ "

This probably wasn't what she meant, he reminded himself. But that didn't stop him from pondering it. This little spark was very quickly turning into a flame in his chest and he suddenly realized he had forgotten how to breathe.

He took in a gasp of air, the flames of suffocation being the only ones to be doused.

His body moved without him really thinking of it. Passing through the gate, pounding on the front door; he didn't think of any of it until a woman who was decidedly  _not_  Gabriel Agreste opened the door.

She made him rethink everything.

"Oh... Umm. Uh..."

"Did you have a reason for pounding on our door, or are you really that bored?"

"I-I'm here for a reason! I swear! I'm uh, I-i'm here to see Mr. Agreste!"

She didn't look impressed, but opened the door and let him step into the lobby. There was a grand staircase that came down to the middle of the room, and the room itself was incredibly massive and spacious. He could fit at least thirty of his couches in here.

"Do you have an appointment?"

"Huh? Oh! Uh... No..."

"I can fill you in for one."

"Really? When?"

She looked at the clipboard she had had under her arm for a moment then nodded.

"September 26, 2016."

"Wh-what! But that's... That's..." He counted on his fingers, "that's six months from now! I need to talk to him now!"

"I can't let you. He's booked."

"Ma'am, please, I really need this."

She crossed her arms, holding the clipboard against her chest.

"Why?"

"I-i-i..."

He trailed off as just the man he was looking for walked across the upper hallway the staircase was connected to, with a pile of papers in hand. He glanced down once, then did a double take and stared down at him as an unreadable expression took over his face.

Opia stared back at him and spoke quietly, but the room had incredible acoustics, so Gabriel heard his words, even if they were a bit distorted by echoes.

"I owe him my life."

"Nathalie, send him up. This isn't one I've heard before." He had a very slight grin to his tone, which seemed to take the woman by surprise. She nodded and led Opia towards the staircase, which he stumbled quite a few times trying to find his footing. He felt like he was living a dream.

Maybe Veronica had put him to sleep and none of this was happening.

"Come to my office. We can talk there with no interruptions."

Opia just nodded dumbly and followed the man like a duckling.

When seated across from him, Opia had the sudden revelation that this was, in fact, happening. So he sat up straighter and tried out an expression he hoped was determined enough.

"Do you know who I am?" The older man asked.

"I assume you're not talking about being a fashion designer."

"You tell me."

"You're... Hawkmoth."

Gabriel, who had been leaning back in his chair, with his fingers steepled in front of his mouth, sighed and leaned forward.

"What do you need from me to make sure your mouth stays shut?"

"S-sir?"

"I can't have you talking about it to everyone, especially with Ladybug and Chat Noir out there."

At the mention of the heroes, Opia frowned, stood, and began to pace.

"Sir, did you happen to see what happened after Ladybug defeated me when I was Dysphoria?" He asked, and Gabriel shook his head with a scowl from remembering that day's loss.

"When I turned back into a human, lady and chat went right back to using female pronouns. Not to mention they nearly shattered my rib cage and made no move to apologize. You were the first person since the incident to ever refer to me as a boy. It may not mean a lot to you, but it meant to world to me. The fact that I tied you to Hawkmoth because you called me a boy should tell you a bit of where I'm coming from."

Gabriel just scowled.

"I am trans. I was born male, but society sees my body and calls it female. I don't know why you don't, but it m-means everything to me." He could feel that burning from before, but behind his eyes this time. He turned away from Gabriel and rubbed his eyes furiously before turning around quickly.

"You can't possibly comprehend how hard it is to be called one thing all your life, when you know it's not true!" He ran his hands through his hair as he felt more tears build up. He really didn't want to cry in front of the guy, but he wasn't going to slow down anytime soon.

"Every time  someone uses a female pronoun in regard to me, it feels like I get my head hit by a brick! People hear me, but they don't  _listen_! The only time..." He took a long, shaky breath as he realized he was tugging at his hair and there were tear tracks running down his cheeks. He took slower, deeper breaths as he calmed and let go of his hair. Gabriel handed him a box of tissues from his desk, and he grabbed a few.

 

They were the soft, thick kind.

 

After blowing his nose and rubbing is eyes a bit, he sat back down and gathered his thoughts.

He finally looked up and when he did, he spoke much more softly.

"The only time I have ever felt right, was when I was in the air, fighting for you." Gabriel's eyes widened, "I want to be Hawkmoth's right hand man. I want to be Gabriel Agreste's intern... If you'll have me?" He was far meeker at the last question.

Gabriel stared at him for a long time. The longer he stared, the more nervous Opia got. He was beginning to ask himself why he didn't just go to the villain AAA meeting when he had the chance, when Gabriel sighed and leaned back into his chair.

"I don't have an intern program. I do not choose those who study under me for no reason."

"I-I... I can... I can model for you. I'm aware of Adrien skipping photo sessions for school. I read bad internet news."

"The world knows you as a girl. How could they react to your name on a male product?"

Opia hadn't expected that. Out of everything he had imagined Gabriel would ask, that had not crossed his mind.

"I... Well they do know my face too..."

"You will be getting a makeover. No apprentice of mine will be caught looking as you do. A haircut will do nicely, as well as a personal makeup crew. I can make designs for some more binders, if you need them." Opia stared. "You'll be a brand new person. But what of your name?"

"Alexander."

"Hmm?"

"Alexander Rojas. My name is Alexander Rojas." He had, admittedly, spent nights where he couldn't sleep brainstorming for potential names he could take. The fact he listened to a certain musical  _most certainly_  did not sway his opinion of his name at all.

"Alexander is good. Would you be willing to do anything I needed of you at anytime?"

"Yes!" He shot up, then looked sheepish at his excitability and nodded. "Yes sir. I'd be happy to help with anything."

"Even if it included becoming a henchman to the hand of what some call evil?"

A bright grin made its way onto Alexander's face and he held out his hand.

"That's what I came here for, sir."

Gabriel shook hands with him and nodded.

"I'll have the papers done by tomorrow. Are you eighteen?"

"Just turned last December, sir."

"Then no parent signature is required. You are from Spain, correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then welcome aboard, my international apprentice. I do hope you find your stay here to be... Fulfilling."

* * *

Gabriel had had him sent to his apartment with a body guard. Not the man who watched over Adrien, of course, he was at the boy's fencing practice.

No, his was a tall Afghan man with glasses and pale green eyes. He had trouble keeping his glasses from sliding down his large beaked nose, and would adjust them every few minutes on the drive to his apartment.

He rode in a limo to his home. _Holy shit_ , he  was riding in a limo to a couple of cheep, rundown apartments.

"This is where you live?" The man asked when they parked, and Alexander felt the need to look sheepish.

"Yeah. My mom just got promoted at the packaging plant up north, but her pay rate still can't let her afford anything more plus supporting a teenager.

The man, Mehmet, frowned and adjusted his glasses, and got out of the limo to open Alexander's door, but the boy beat him to it. Mehmet paused at Alexander's empty side of the car, a look of confusion crossing his face until he followed him up into the apartment.

Mehmet looked at the tiny apartment with a mix of shock and disgust.

" _This_  is where you  _live_?"

"Accustomed to a richer life style, I suppose? Yeah. I only see my mom in the mornings and evenings, she gets the bedroom and I get the couch. We have to fight over bathroom time." He gave a slight chuckle and collected his things from the chest behind the couch. There wasn't much, since he was leaving most of his clothes. He took school books, his ancient hand held game system from a thrift shop, his bathroom supplies, and a few binders. Gabriel had never made binders, since they weren't the type of thing to be on high demand, so he needed to look over the styles Alexander had, to be able to make his designs correct.

Everything fit inside his backpack. When he stood up and looked to Mehmet, the man frowned and looked around.

"That's all you have?"

"Mr. Agreste is going to give me better clothes. He doesn't want the new face of his modeling company to be seen in thrift store clothes."

"Nothing else? Nothing to decorate and make your new home more homey?"

"Does it look like I have a lot of stuff? Mehmet, I'm not from a family that can spend a lot on random things for our personalities. We've got to feed ourselves before getting toys." He looked around the room, a hint of melancholy tracing his features. "Although, with me gone, my mom could probably afford to decorate a bit. She didn't want me to worry about having a job to support her, but... Well, with me out of the picture, she might get by a little better."

He stood there for a moment, considering whether his mom would agree, but finally shrugged and pulled his phone out of his pocket. Mehmet raised an eyebrow at it, since it was an old beat up flip phone. It was covered in stickers, most of which were faded from wear.

Alexander put it on the kitchen table and walked towards the door. Mehmet glanced about the tiny apartment one more time before following.

 

Back in the limo, on their way back to the mansion, Mehmet finally asked Alexander the questions that had been piling up in his head.

"Why are you moving out of your place? Surely working with Mr. Agreste isn't so grueling that you need to be at his side all day?"

"We talked about it, and I'm much more comfortable staying at his side 24/7. My home situation is... Less than ideal. For reasons you saw, and for more personal reasons as well. Plus, it's better to not make the trip back and forth everyday. Less gas, you know?"

The body guard rubbed his chin in thought and asked, "why you? Not to be rude, but you aren't exactly the model or fashionable type."

"I am... Very persuasive. We're... Old friends, you could say."

"Ah... Well... Why did you leave your phone?"

Alexander rubbed the back of his head nervously and shrank back a bit.

"I uh... My mom doesn't know about this. I don't want her to know. I don't really... Want... To be around people I used to know anymore."

"Even your family?"

"...yeah. It's not like anyone in my family really respected me anyways. My dad left a year ago; no trace of him, and my mom never respected my life style? It's... Personal."

Mehmet didn't talk any more for the duration of the ride, but he did give Alexander a pat on the shoulder the next time he adjusted his glasses.

* * *

The first thing Gabriel had Alexander do when they got back was get a haircut. Alexander really had no experience with a personal makeup and hair dressing team, so he let them do what they wanted. They seemed thrilled at the idea until Gabriel came in and told them not to go overboard.

Celeste, a tall curvy woman with long light brown hair, worked on his hair as the two assigned to his makeup loomed over a folder of pictures. They were quietly squabbling over which look would be best for him.

"Freddie, please. High cheek bones are not popular right now. We need better eyebrows and a healthy glow."

He decided he really didn't want to hear them talk about his lack of a glow, so he looked back to the mirror and watched Celeste cut his hair.

It didn't look like much at the moment. His hair that wasn't trapped in clips hung flat and limp and just looked rather unappealing. Earlier, Celeste had taken a pair of clippers to the back of his head, which gave him a slight undercut, but most of his hair still covered it up. Whatever she was going to do to his mess, he hoped she could pull off making it look masculine, cause he sure as hell never could.

* * *

Nearly two hours later, and Alexander was shown to his room, where Mehmet had already put his bag. With his new haircut and incredible highlighting on his cheeks, he felt empowered. He could do anything. He also felt like he could eat an entire buffet.

His stomach rumbled as he inspected his room, far to hungry to really appreciate the four post bed and cream colored drapes. It was pretty, sure, but some food would be so much more aesthetically pleasing to him right about now.

He turned around and wandered down the hall to find the kitchen, or at least find out when dinner would happen. Would he even eat with Gabriel? Probably not, since he was such a busy guy, and all. But if he had to be by his boss's side at all times, did that mean he ate with him? Was he breaking the rules right now? Did Gabriel Agreste even eat, or was he some sort of robot?

His train of thought was halted when he collided with someone else in the hallway. He had been staring at the ceiling as he thought and walked, so he had not seen anybody coming his way. Luckily, he had fast enough reflexes to grab the other person to steady them both.

When he looked down at them, he was met with narrowed bright green eyes. In fact, the whole face was pulled into a confused frown.

"Who are you?" Adrien Agreste asked.

"Oh! Oh, so sorry, I'm- I'm Alexander." He nearly slipped up and used his old name. It was weird to suddenly switch names like he had. "I'm working under your dad, I'll be living here for the foreseeable future."

Adrien raised and eyebrow and huffed.

"How'd you manage that? He doesn't normally take students or anything like that."

"I told him I'd model for shoots you can't make, since you have school, and friends, and a blooming social life. That way you don't have to be dragged away from the fun!"

He gave Adrien a pat on the shoulder and a grin, and continued to walk down the hallway, leaving Adrien to handle that onslaught of information on his own.

He had, after all, caught a whiff of something cooking downstairs, and he was dying to find out what it was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> quick reminder that my tumblr is qu33nbeee.tumblr.com and my art/oc blog is theporcelainwitch.tumblr.com
> 
> (i have posted a pic of our main guy in his final akuma form, but you'll probably have to dig a bit to find him on the second blog. it was back at the beginning of July that i posted it lol)


	5. Two [Frenchmen] and an Immigrant Walk into a Room, Diametrically Opposed, Foes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> arguably the most important chapter for the first part of this whole story

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well, college suddenly woke up and punched me in the gut like 5 times so i couldnt get much work done on this. plus, its such a long, important chapter i didnt want to leave anything out. speaking of college, im posting this instead of doing research for my art class.
> 
> tw for mentions or rape, an anxiety attack, and some alcohol (not all at once, thank god) nothing too hardcore yet.

Initially, the cooks did not appreciate him wandering into the kitchens to grab a snack between meals. They all came from different worlds, mainly, a world where snacks were common, and another where snacks were called appetizers and served just before the meal.

After a week or so of his pestering, the head chef just started leaving a basket of bread, cheese, and fruits out for him in front of the kitchen doors. That way, he would get what he wanted, and he wouldn't disturb the jobs happening inside.

Each time he would sneak back to Gabriel's side with another snack, his boss would give him a side long look and sigh, then would go back to his papers.

It was on a day like this, nine days since he had started working, and Alexander was examining Gabriel's book shelves for the hundredth time as he bit into an apple. The radio was on for background noise as Gabriel worked, shuffling papers that ranged from plans of a new design line, to taxes and the occasional fan mail.

Gabriel always gave Alexander the fan mail to read, since apparently he didn't "have the time."

Alexander didn't mind, he liked seeing what people thought of the clothes. Plus, it was an ego booster to see the people pleading to become his assistant. Out of all these people, the guy chose him; a mangy teen who dragged himself onto his front doorstep. Knowing he was a super villain probably played into his choice, but Alexander ignored that bit.

/ _we interrupt this program to warn our listeners of an Amber alert for the metro district of Paris_./

the radio suddenly crackled, and Alexander froze mid-bite. He turned to the radio on Gabriel's desk, as his boss did the same.

/ _18 year old Opia Belmonte has been missing for at least seven days. Her mother found her phone in their house after a double shift at her work, and she has not made any contact with anyone from school or otherwise. She has mid length brown hair, hazel eyes, and is 6'3. She was last known to be wearing a grey hoodie and blue jeans. Please contact the police if you know where she may be._ /

Gabriel turned and leveled a hard glare at Alexander.

"I thought you had everything cleared up with your mother before you came here."

"Well, no, I never said that. You know what they say about assuming, sir." He tried to joke, but Gabriel was having none of it. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, long and deep.

"We have to cover that up somehow now. If we come out and admit you are Opia, there is a chance people will not see you as male, no matter what. We don't want that, especially not before you've even been revealed to the public."

Alexander slunk into to the chair across from Gabriel's and rested his chin on the edge of the desk.

"What do you have in mind?"

Gabriel rubbed his face, turned to look at the ceiling, and sighed again.

"It seems Paris will be meeting Hawkmoth's sidekick before they meet my intern." He said it with such distain, Alexander nearly missed the sly smirk sent his way.

He took a moment to absorb that, then his face lit up with a fiery gleam in his eye.

"Whenever you're ready, I've got some designs for you." He grinned, and followed Gabriel when he began walking towards the doors of his office. Alexander couldn't help the goofy grin spreading across his face.

* * *

 

He hadn't been in the attic before. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but a dark room full of white butterflies was not it. Gabriel walked in front of him to the center of the room and turned to look back at him.

"It's time I show you the power I have, I suppose."

He tapped his broach, and a small purple creature flew out of it as Alexander stepped forward. It flitted about like a moth looking for light.

"This is Nooroo, a Kwami. Each miraculous houses one."

"Huh. Well that's different." Alexander said as Nooroo turned and looked at him quizzically. Alexander waved.

"Nooroo, this is Alexander, my champion."

The little Kwami looked up at Gabriel with a shocked expression.

"You've chosen a single person? After all this time? ...I thought it would be that fox girl?" He cowered away after asking so many questions, and Alexander gave him a pat on his head.

"I kinda forced him. He's stuck with me now."

"He is a much more willing champion, making him a more powerful ally. With some sort of victory, I can unlock this miraculous' full potential, as well."

"Full potential?" Alexander asked.

"Yes, as of right now, I can only create one akuma at a time. With your help, I hope to control others while you are on the playing field."

"Ah, so my backup."

Nooroo looked at the both of them with concern. He didn't exactly want to further Gabriel's evil schemes, but he wasn't sure what to think of Alexander as of yet.

"Enough chatter. Nooroo, transform me."

Alexander watched as deep purple magic enveloped Gabriel and he became Hawkmoth. He realized he had never seen Hawkmoth face to face before, and he couldn't help the snort that escaped when he turned to him expectantly.

Hawkmoth frowned. "What?"

"Y-you look ridiculous, what is up with that ski mask?"

"It's not like I designed it, the Kwami did."

"Nooroo, oh my god, that's hilarious." He chuckled softly as Hawkmoth summoned a white butterfly over.

"I'm choosing to ignore your outburst, in favor of getting you suited up. What do you have on you that is precious to you?"

"My heart."

"I'm serious, Alexander. The akuma will attach to an object with lots of emotional baggage. It feeds off of that."

"Boss, I'm serious too." Alexander managed to stop his snickering to show that he wasn't kidding. "Have you ever tried to attach it to a body part?"

"You're insane."

"Do you think ladybug could kill someone, Boss?"

Hawkmoth looked at him with a mix of confusion and fear.

"She's a hero, sir. A young hero. I highly doubt she'd be able to kill someone, and if you put that thing on my heart, guess how she'd have to get it out? Will her lucky charm bring someone back to life?"

Hawkmoth seemed to be in a slight state of shock.

"After my last time as an akuma, her powers didn't heal my ribs or my concussion. I've been thinking about it. Do you think she's wondered about the extent of her powers? You haven't exactly challenged her in that sense."

"Do you know the risks of attaching one of these to your body?"

"Do you?"

Hawkmoth was silent, and Alexander smirked.

"Let's try it once. If you don't like it, we can try something else next time."

Hawkmoth sighed. It seemed that even being in his villain form didn't stop him from becoming exasperated.

"I haven't used an akuma on someone with positive emotions before. I know it is possible, but it is easier to manipulate the negative ones. I am not certain how your happiness will affect the transformation." He said as the butterfly turned dark and he held it out towards Alexander.

"There's a first time for everything-oh."

When the butterfly landed on the area of Alexander's chest that was exposed by his V-neck, a cool sensation took him over. His skin started turning black from his chest outwards, and the air left his lungs all at once. He might have blacked out.

When he opened his eyes, unsure of how much time had passed, Hawkmoth was looking at him with concern. He was now laying on the floor, so Hawkmoth helped him back up.

"Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah. Yeah. That was just a... Different thing."

Hawkmoth gave him a look that wasn't quite believing before turning to his large window.

"Do you remember the plan we discussed on our way up here?"

"Yes sir."

"And you said I looked ridiculous?"

"What?"

Hawkmoth looked over his shoulder with a smirk as he gave Alexander a quick look over, then over to a corner of the room, where a mirror sat in the shadows.

Alexander glanced between the two, then bolted over to the mirror and stared at himself.

He had wings again, but they were different. Before, they had been colorless and skinny. Now, they were big, purple, and had a waxy weight to them.

Before, what he had seen of his armor was a simple chest plate with etching along the sides. Now, he was suited in a full body armor, that was bright green and shined like a beetle's shell.

There was a similarly colored crown on his hair, which was colored bright orange and styled up and back. A sword rested in its sheath on his hip.

He looked ridiculous, and he had to cover his mouth to stifle a laugh.

He skipped back over to Hawkmoth and grinned at him.

"We are both ridiculous, sir. You are an evil moth man, and I am your butterfly knight."

That seemed to shut down Hawkmoth's smirk, and he turned to the window again.

"Just go out there and do the plan. Time is of the essence."

"Yes sir."

* * *

 

Alexander flew over the city. He didn't expect the heroes to come out when he hadn't done anything, and that was the plan. His sword clinked against his thigh as he scoped out the businesses beneath him.

On tall building stood out to him. He could see a large office with an important-looking man in a suit, sitting at the desk. It was the perfect target.

After a moment of hesitation to gather his strength, and flew directly at the large window behind the desk. With a crash, he stumbled into the office as the businesses man shouted in shock, and attempted to crawl under his desk. He probably thought that there was a fight outside he could avoid.

He was very wrong.

Alexander walked around the desk as he drew his sword. The man was huddled and shaking and he almost felt bad, but he knew if everything went according to plan, he wouldn't really hurt him.

"I am the Butterfly Knight. I'm going to need your help with a little job I'm doing."

The man looked up slowly, and stared skeptically.

"I need to talk to Ladybug and Chat Noir, so they know who's on top around here, but they don't tend to show up unless people are in trouble."

He reached down and pulled the man up, only to hold him flush against him to make sure he could get away.

"It'd be really nice if you start screaming, yeah?"

He pressed the blade of his sword to the man's throat, and turned them towards the broken window so that people below could see and hear a little better.

There was a certain strength to his new form. He could lift the man with just one arm wrapped around him, allowing him to hold him over the edge of the broken window, with a blade to his throat. Someone down below screamed as the man struggled in his tight grip.

"Wh-why me?" The man gasped, "do I know you? It's usually someone the akuma knows, right? What did I do?"

Alexander gave the man a curious look as he continued to babble.

"Was it the cut backs? I'm sorry, I didn't have a say in who got cut! That's the higher ups! W-was it Clarissa? Did Jonathan set you up to this?" At this, he gasped and struggled a little less. "Jonathan? Is that you? You know that you mean more to me than Clarissa ever will! She was a one night stand, you will always be my man!"

"...I have no idea what you're talking about." Alexander finally said, causing the man to halt in both his movements and his ramblings. "I'm just using you for attention. But dude, I think you should talk about your relationship with Jonathan."

"Wh-what... But how?"

Alexander sighed and hefted the man off of the edge, and back over to his desk. He let him go, and the man scrambled into his desk chair while Alexander sat on the table.

"What happened exactly, dude?"

The back of his head was pounding as Hawkmoth's annoyance at the situation rang clear along their mind link. Alexander shrugged it off, excusing the delay on the grounds that the heroes hadn't showed up yet.

"Well... Um... Two weeks ago, I got in a fight with my boyfriend, Jonathan, and went to a bar, got drunk, and slept with a woman named Clarissa. I didn't mean to, I didn't want to. I was drunk and she wasn't, and she... She made me... I always thought men were supposed to love all sex but..."

Alexander stared in horror at the fidgeting man.

"Woah, woah, ok stop. Before you go on, get this through the your head. Anytime you do not consent to sex, and are forced into sex, it's rape. It doesn't matter if you're a guy. Rape can happen to anyone."

The man stared as if that had never dawned on him before.

"If Jonathan doesn't get that, then he's not worth it."

The man stared for a moment longer then chuckled. "I never thought I'd be getting relationship advice from a-an aku-"

The door of the office slammed open and Paris's heroes jumped forward. In a flash, Alexander had sprung up, grabbed the business man, and had the sword back at his neck threateningly. He glared at Ladybug as she spun her yoyo.

"-ma. Umm..."

"What a pleasant surprise, little bug and her sidekick. How are you two today?"

"Let him go! He hasn't done anything to you!"

"Oh, I know that. This isn't about him."

"Then why-"

"Will you listen to what I have to say if I let him go? Because I have something very important to discuss."

"Let him go first, then we'll see." Chat said, glancing between the hostage and the blade at his neck. It was different than other akumas. Other's weapons didn't tend to make other people... Bleed. No one had ever been stabbed while fighting an akuma, so it was a bit of new territory for Lady and Chat. Of course they were on edge.

"Alright." Alexander shrugged and pushed the man towards the two. "Talk to him, dude. You need to work out those kinks in your relationship." The man stumbled as he nodded and rushed out the door. Chat and Ladybug looked a bit confused.

Alexander waved dismissively.

"This isn't about him. He was just a means of getting you here. I listened to his relationship problems."

Ladybug stood straighter and let her yoyo drop as she stared at Alexander in confusion.

"You aren't like the other akumas."

"No, I'm pretty special." He smirked and sat across the desk. "I just wanna talk." He walked his fingers across the desk top and let his smirk drop. "Have you heard the news? About the Amber alert?"

"You know where Miss Opia is?" They both asked.

"Yes, and no. Opia was a prototype for me, you may have noticed a few similarities?" They nodded. "Opia, aka Dysphoria, is safe. She is being well cared for. She ran away because her home life sucked. I want you to make a public appearance and tell everyone that she is safe."

"Where is she?" Chat asked.

"Not important."

"Yes it is! We have to make sure!"

He sighed, "fine. She went to live with her uncle Louie. Tell her mom, she will know who that is. She doesn't want to be found, and an Amber alert is bad news."

"Who is Louie?" Ladybug asked.

"Her uncle."

Lady and Chat looked at each other, both very unsure and uncomfortable in this situation. They had never talked with an akuma like this. In some ways it was better than the risk of fighting, but it was also so odd.

"... What is your name?" Ladybug finally asked, and Alexander smirked.

Swiftly, he pulled his sword back out and pointed it at them as he swooped forward. They both jumped back in shock.

"You can call me Butterfly Knight. We'll be seeing each other quite often."

He stepped back, sheathed his sword, and flipped back out of the broken window. When Ladybug and Chat Noir scrambled forward to look out of the window, Alexander was already halfway towards the attic window where Hawkmoth was waiting.

* * *

 

For once, a plan of his succeeded.

Hawkmoth couldn't help the grin that spread over his face when Alexander slipped back into the room. He may not have gotten a miraculous, but the task he had set Alexander out to do was completed, and that small victory gave him a little extra power. It was invigorating. He grinned and Alexander seemed pleased with himself, for good reason.

"Was that good?"

"Giving the business man relationship advice isn't exactly evil, but you did what I asked, so I am happy."

"Well it's not like you control every part of me, it's still me out there. And I do love seeing fellow gays in real life."

"You're gay?"

Alexander shrugged and smiled "I don't know, probably something like that. I never think about it all that much."

Hawkmoth contemplated this, then nodded and let Nooroo out of his miraculous. As his magic separated from his body, the magic still on Alexander dissipated as well, leaving a dark purple butterfly tattoo on his chest where the akuma had originally landed. It was partially covered by his shirt and binder, but Gabriel could see that the thin lines were intricate, like a fine lace.

He had never had a champion to relish in victories with before. He had never seen his magic on another person in a normal setting before. It only made to remind him of that power surge he felt when he won for the first time.

As he headed out of the attic, he let his hand rest on Alexander's shoulder.

"Now, shall we discuss plans for making your internship public? Better late than never, right?"

"Sounds good, boss." Alexander said with a snort of laughter. He could tell that Gabriel was incredibly happy at his good work and was just trying, and failing, to keep his cool. Alexander wasn't a snitch, so he let it go without teasing him about it.

* * *

 

The next day, nearly all the news channels were talking about Opia's disappearance and the revealing of a new akuma that seemed to have no real ill intent. They were in Gabriel's office again, listening to the tv in the background as Gabriel showed Alexander his designs of suits. They were planning the best outfit for Alexander to introduce himself in, and he liked hearing about himself on the national news.

"Blue will be the best undershirt color for you, it will contrast nicely. Keep that in mind while looking at designs."

"Can't they come in all colors?"

"Well yes, but shape works with color interestingly as well. Some designs look better with red than they do with green or blue."

"Huh." Alexander looked up from the sketch book for a moment to stretch, but when he glanced at the tv, he froze and the color drained from his face.

Gabriel didn't realize anything was wrong until the bag that Nooroo normally stayed in began to shake. He only saw the fear on Alexander's face when he sat up to check what was wrong with his Kwami.

"Alexander, are you-"

"M-my dad..." He whispered without tearing his eyes from the screen.

Gabriel followed his gaze and saw there was a talk show on, starring a sobbing woman and an aloof looking man. The man's hair was shaved into a buzz cut, but his nose and eyes were unmistakably Alexander's. The woman also had very short hair and was a little on the big side, and seemed to be sobbing in Spanish.

"Mr. Belemont, what did you do when you heard of your daughter's disappearance?" The host asked, and the man looked at the camera for a good long second before turning to the host again, as if the crew had to shoo him away from glaring at the cameras.

"I was obviously upset. Opia is not the type of girl to run away, so I assumed she had been kidnapped. Any well meaning father would be worried."

"That's a load of bullshit!" Alexander yelled, making Gabriel jump in surprise. "Who the hell does he think he is?!"

Gabriel was surprised to see Alexander's new tattoo bubbling with magic as he steamed at the tv. Dark purple globs of magic lifted off his skin and popped mid air, only to settle back onto his skin. It seemed to be spreading slowly. Nooroo made his bag shake again, and he went to open it, but Alexander distracted him again.

Alexander's father had been asked about why he hadn't moved to France with his wife and daughter.

"My wife and I had had a disagreement and she left far sooner than I would have liked. I wanted Opia to learn the language better, because that would make high school easier to adapt to. I also still had a lot of work, and couldn't just run away from it all."

"That lying slime bag! Fuck!" Alexander roughly ran his hands through his hair, and it stuck up oddly, similar to how he looked as the Butterfly Knight. There seemed to be orange bleeding into the roots of his hair, as well.

"I don't know how he got my mom to go back to him but whatever he did it's fucked! That manipulative ass, if he hurt her - why the FUCK is he here?"

Nooroo finally freed himself from his bag and tugged at Gabriel's sleeve.

"Gabriel, he can't fully transform unless you do too."

"What?"

"He doesn't need you to transform him with an akuma every time, but you do need to be Hawkmoth for him to turn. At least, with the power you have now."

"We don't need him to transform now, though."

Nooroo stared at him in shock, then over to Alexander, where his entire body was shaking and sweating.

"T-then I think you need to calm him down! He's going to go into a panic attack!"

Gabriel looked back at Alexander and finally registered the tears about the escape his eyes. He got up and slowly moved around his desk.

"Alexander, you are safe from your father here."

"H-he's gonna ruin everything again."

"No, there is no way I am letting that man within fifty meters of this house."

"He's got mom back under his control again... They'll figure out where I am..."

Gabriel grabbed Alexander's shoulders and leaned down so he could be closer to eye level.

"You are safe, Alexander. I won't let anything happen to you. I definitely won't let you ever be anywhere near that man."

"What if... He hits her again..."

"Would you like me to send someone to check on them later tonight?"

"Y-yeah..."

"Good. I will. Can you breathe?"

Alexander's breathing was shaky, but he nodded. Gabriel changed the channel to some cartoons and helped Alexander sit back down.

"Are you ok?"

Alexander nodded.

"You're safe here."

He nodded and closed his eyes. A moment later, he slumped down in the chair and his chest rose and fell in steady, sleeping breaths.

Gabriel watched him for another moment, then stood and looked out the hallway and called for Nathalie.

"Yes, sir?" She asked from farther down the hallway as she walked into view.

"Can you schedule Alexander's driver to take his body guard to his old apartment and make sure his parents are alright later today? Be sure to tell them to be discrete about it."

Nathalie raised an eyebrow at him but  wrote down the request and nodded.

"You have really taken a liking to that boy, Mr. Agreste."

"He is a promising intern." He said, distracted as he looked behind him at Alexander's sleeping form.

"Please just do not forget about Adrian, sir. He is your son, not Alexander."

"I know who my son is, Nathalie. Don't worry about that."

He closed the door and she sighed heavily. She could only hope things would settle, but Adrien had been exceedingly on edge the past week, and neither Gabriel or Alexander had seemed to notice at all.

* * *

 

"So..."

Mehmet awkwardly shifted in the passengers seat of the sleek car as he pushed his glasses up his nose. The driver glanced at him for only a moment before staring back at the road. Neither of them had been alone with each other for this long before. Usually they only nodded to each other when they took Alexander out to the store. But Mehmet couldn't help but notice how their dark stubble lined their strong jaw, and how soft their hair looked when it was pulled up in a bun.

"Mr. Agreste said we had to be discreet... So I guess we're spying?" He said, trying to pull his gaze away from the driver.

"Why do you think he's worried about this?" The driver asked.

"I dunno... It's a bit strange."

The driver nodded and fell silent again.

Mehmet shifted a bit, looked out the window, then back at the driver.

"What's your name? I never asked."

The driver glanced at him again and snorted.

"It's João. Yours is Mehmet, right?"

He gulped. He hadn't expected them to already know much about him.

"Yeah..."

"Well, I have an idea to infiltrate the apartment. I've done it before, back when I was living in Brazil. My friends and I did it to get free food sometimes."

"... How does that work?"

João just smirked and concentrated on the road ahead.

* * *

 

Mehmet was sweating like a whore in church. Seeing as how he didn't even practice the religion that term came from, he knew he was kinda screwed to feel the need to use it.

João squeezed his hand a little tighter as they waited at the door of Alexander's old apartment. He wondered off handedly if the boy's mother had added some homely touches to it since he'd been gone.

"Don't worry, we'll be fine. I've done this plenty of times before." João reassured him again, and he let out a shaky breath.

"But I'm not sure-"

The door opened, revealing a man who looked vaguely familiar. He gave them a once over, focusing on their joined hands, then back at their faces. He was tall, and had to look down to meet João's eyes.

"What do you want?"

"Hi hi! We're your downstairs neighbors, we were going to do some deep cleaning in our apartment, you know how messy things can get, and silly us, we forgot that our vacuum broke a week ago! We were hoping we could borrow yours?"

"Who is it?" Came a woman's voice farther into the apartment.

"Oh! There's two of you! I suppose we should get a full vote here, could you bring your wife out too?"

"Why don't you just come in for a moment?" The man asked, and João clapped his free hand over his chest.

"Really? So hospitable! Thank you! Come on, babe, don't be rude!"

To be perfectly honest, Mehmet really couldn't say he did anything of his own will. He felt like someone else was controlling his body as João tugged him forward. All he could think about was his new partner's warm hand, and pushing his glasses farther up his nose.

Alexander's mom brought him back to reality, though. He had seen the news lately, and once he saw the plump woman in the kitchen, he recognized the man as well. João's hand tightened around his for a moment, and he knew they recognized them too.

They shared a knowing glance and nodded to each other.

"Anastasia, these are our... downstairs neighbors. they wanted to borrow our vacuum." The man said.

Anastasia turned and smiled at them, but Mehmet could see the sorrow in her eyes.

"I'm sorry to pry, but... Didn't I see you two on the news?"

The husband and wife looked at each other and João elbowed him in the side.

"W-well, yes, you see, our daughter Opia ran away, we thought. We... Had a code of sorts, that we didn't think she had picked up on, but..." Anastasia sniffed, but recovered quickly. "It was the message the heroes gave us. Years ago, when Opia was much younger, my cousin, her uncle, Louie, committed suicide. When any friends of the family died, we would tell her they went to live with her uncle Louie. Ladybug told me that they were told that she had gone to live with her Uncle Louie."

The man, who's name Mehmet could not recall, wrapped his arm around  Anastasia's shoulders and gave her an awkward pat.

"We don't know how that code got to the heroes, but they didn't know what it meant. Good thing, since they seemed to be pretty young." He said. "I came back to Anastasia as soon as I heard of what happened."

"There's no other explanation?" João asked timidly, and the parents shook their heads.

"Oh..."

After a few moments of silence, Anastasia clapped, bringing all of their attention to her again.

"Why don't I get you two that vacuum? You can bring it back as soon as you're done, as long as it's not longer than a few days!"

"Oh, right. Of course, thank you ma'am." João said with a smile. "Let me help you."

He separated from Mehmet and followed Anastasia down the short hall, leaving Mehmet to sweat under the other man's scrutiny.

"So..." He said after a moment. "Your... Partner... That a boy or a girl? Got the beard of a man and hips of a woman."

"Um, João is neither, sir. They're non-binary, I believe."

He sniffed with a frown, then held out his hand. "Whatever. You can call me Samuel."

He only took Samuel's hand to be polite. Something about him set him on edge. "I'm Mehmet."

"Never met a queer before, Mehmet."

"Ah... You probably have and just didn't know..."

"I'm a good judge of character. I would know."

"Oh. Okay."

They fell silent until João and Anastasia came back with a bulky vacuum cleaner. They were laughing. Mehmet was glad at least one of them made a good impression.

The couple waved them goodbye as they walked down the hallway, and to the stairs. They luckily didn't see them down to the apartment they didn't own.

* * *

On the drive back, with an extra vacuum cleaner in the back, Mehmet came to an awful realization.

"We're going to have to go back."

"Well yeah," João replied easily. "You don't get free food the first time you do it. You gotta get invited to a dinner party first."

"... You and your friends in Brazil had far too much time on your hands."

* * *

 

Alexander was nearly jumping out of his skin in anticipation. This would be one of the first press meetings Gabriel Agreste would hold in months, maybe even years. Anything he said in public warranted the press to be fawning over him for a week at least. Huge announcements would be the talk of the town in all the fashion communities all over the world, as well as popular gossip for weeks among people in Paris.

This meant people would be talking about him, as a guy. He wasn't going to be misgendered by the masses anymore. It was like a breath of fresh air after days in a musty room.

He adjusted his tie again in the mirror, but it still looked off. He was wearing a three piece charcoal suit, with a pale blue dress shirt, and Celeste had parted his hair to be a little neater than normal.

Gabriel had already gone down to talk to a few reporters, so there wasn't anyone else to ask for help. That is, until a certain fourteen year old walked by the room.

"Adrien!" Alexander called, making him jump in surprise.

"What?"

"I need some help, my tie doesn't seem to be cooperating and I need to go downstairs soon."

Adrien sighed and walked up to him. He squinted at the tie and started to completely untie it.

"You've never put on a tie in your life before this, have you?"

"Not ones that I had to tie myself. Clip on ties apparently aren't okay to wear to press conferences."

Adrien's eyebrows scrunched together, whether in annoyance or concentration, Alexander couldn't tell.

"Seriously." Adrien grumbled.

"Hmm?"

"How did someone like you get a job under my dad? Clip on ties? You act like you've lived off of thrift stores your whole life."

"Oh... well. Heh..." Alexander scratched the back of his head as Adrien started to retie the tie. He couldn't meet Adrien's eye.

"No..."

"Not really from a rich family, kid. But thrift stores aren't all that bad. Especially going with friends. You can laugh at all the weird clothes people donated."

At the mention of friends, Adrien's hands paused and he looked at Alexander with wide eyes.

"Really?"

Alexander smiled down at him and ruffled his hair a bit, making Adrien frown.

"Tell ya what. In exchange for you teaching me how to tie ties, I'll write down the best shops in the city to go with your friends. It'll be a blast."

Adrien tightened the completed tie and nodded.

"Deal. I'll show you tomorrow if you have the time."

"I'll figure something out, I don't wanna leave you hanging." Alexander smiled broadly and ruffled Adrien's hair one more time before he made his way downstairs.

Adrien stared after him for a moment, then shook his head and went to his room.

* * *

 

Alexander stopped short of the small stage the media had set up in front of the mansion and waited for Gabriel to notice him. A few moments of Gabriel drowning in questions passed until he glanced over, saw him, and excused himself. 

"Are you ready?"

"Y-yeah, I think so. Never done something like this before, but..." he glanced at the growing sea of reporters nervously. "I just introduce myself, right?"

"Yes. Answer some questions, but if anything makes you uncomfortable, I can take over."

Alexander sighed and stood up straight. "Okay."

Gabriel motioned for him to follow him up to the podium, and he stood next to him as Gabriel talked to the reporters.

Alexander drowned out his voice, and instead watched as he swept the crowd into some sort of story of his youth. He didn't smile as much when he talked to the reporters as he did when he was alone. His hands clenched against the podium at times, and occasionally he would adjust his cuff links. The sunlight made his hair look whiter than it really was.

"But let's cut to the chase, shall we? Mr. Rojas?"

Gabriel stepped back and it took Alexander a moment to realize that that was his cue to introduce himself.

"Oh!" He jumped up to his place and shot a bright smile to the crowd. They stared up at him and a few cameras flashed.

"My name is Alexander Rojas. I'm pleased to tell you all that I will be Gabriel Agreste's intern for the foreseeable future. I'm looking forward to having a good year, and i can only hope you all are blessed with the same."

Immediately, the reporters lunged forward, shouting questions and taking photos at lightning speed. Alexander stepped back in shock for a moment, but smiled and waved a hand back and forth.

"Now now, slow down, I can't hear you when you speak over each other like that. How about..." he scanned over the crowd and pointed out a girl with a fancy updo. "What is your question?"

"Where are you from, Mr. Rojas?"

"Please, call me Alexander. I'm from Spain! San Sebastián, to be exact. It's close to the border, so I already heard French growing up, so this transition isn't too hard. Although, it seems to have given me a weird accent." The woman nodded and wrote in her journal as her photographer snapped some pictures.

Another reporter, closer to the middle spoke up as he raised his hand to be noticed.

"How long have you been in France?"

"Hmm... a year? It's hard to tell. It still feels like I just moved yesterday, but at the same time, so much has happened it's like years have passed."

"How did you get this internship?" Someone shouted from the back. It sounded more like a teenage girl than a reporter.

"Oh, you know..." he leaned aloofly against the podium, "knocked on the door and begged. Really ground my nose into the dirt for him. I had to prove I could help him in some way. Just wanting the opportunity isn't enough, I had to bring something new and unique to the table."

"What did you bring?" Someone else asked.

Alexander just winked, smiled, and pressed his finger against his mouth.

"Have you encountered an akuma attack yet, Alexander?" A woman right next to the stage asked. He looked down at her for a moment, taking in her large glasses and tight hair bun. She held her mic up higher when he didn't respond right away.

"Yes ma'am, I have."

"Aren't you afraid of them?" A girl pressed against the other side of the stage asked. She had nothing more than her phone and a notepad. She adjusted her glasses as she stared him down.

"Not at all."

This caused the reporters to surge forward and talk over each other once again. Alexander held up his hands to get them to calm down.

"I can tell you're confused. But I have nothing the akumas want. In the long run, it seems they want something the heroes have. Besides whatever petty thing that changed them, they attack ladybug and chat noir more than citizens. Maybe I haven't been here long enough to know. But... I'm not sure how many of you saw the Akuma the other day, the one who got away? Cause he didn't seem like such a bad guy. He only wanted to talk, I thought."

He looked at his fingernails for a moment then back at the girl who asked the question.

"Besides, why should the people of Paris live in fear if they have such great protectors?" He smiled and the girl smiled back.

He suddenly felt Gabriel come up behind him and rest his hands on his shoulders - which must have been a bit awkward, seeing as how they were very close in heights.

"That is all the time we have today, thank you all for coming, but we have important business to discuss on Alexander's internship."

As Gabriel guided him away, Alexander looked at him in confusion.

"I thought I still had ten minutes?"

"You brought up something I forgot about. It gave me an idea." Gabriel replied. "I'll explain on the way to the attic."

* * *

 

They speed walked down the hallway towards the attic. Very few people ever came down this corridor, as the attic was off limits to everyone else. Gabriel adjusted his gloves as he talked.

"I have come to realize that the miraculi are not set in stone when it comes to power. Each one seems to have different ways to gain power, and it wasn't until you completed my task yesterday that I realized what I had been lacking." He opened the hatch to the attic, letting Alexander climb up first.

"The moth miraculous allows me to create a champion, yes, but what good is a champion that doesn't do their task? The more tasks you finish, the higher you rise in the ranks. With each task completed, the more power you gain for the both of us."

"So what am I going to do?" Alexander asked as Gabriel called out Nooroo.

"I realize I was always assigning a task too difficult for such low level champions... stealing two other miraculous? What was I thinking?" He paused to let Nooroo transform him. As his magic enveloped him, the magic on Alexander's chest sprung to life as well. By the time Gabriel became Hawkmoth, Alexander had become the Butterfly Knight. "...I hope you don't mind a little community service, my Knight."

"I said I'd do anything, boss. I meant every word of it."

"Good. There's a large window that needs to be replaced. Here's enough to pay for it. Go help that business man again."

Alexander grinned and nodded as he took the cash Gabriel offered, and flew out the window.

* * *

 

His decision to walk through the front doors instead of flying through the still broken window proved to be completely worth it, when everyone who saw him jumped up to hide.

He ignored them and walked up to one of the secretaries, who was staring at him wide-eyed.

"Hey, hi, uh..." he greeted awkwardly as he took the cash out of a fold in his armor. "So, I was here yesterday and I broke a window upstairs? Have you called someone about that yet?"

The secretary shook their head and gaped at him.

"Ok, good! I mean... I found a fairly good business to fix it. Don't worry, it's on me. I'll call them now."

He stepped back and felt around his armor, only to remember that he didn't have any real pockets big enough to fit his new smart phone Gabriel had gotten him.

"Heh, oh, could I actually use your phone? I seem to have left mine in my other armor."

The secretary stared at him for a full minute then snorted and slid the desk phone over to him. As he dialed the number he had seen on a bus ad on his way over, Alexander looked around the lobby to see the business goers looking at each other in confusion. He waved to a kid who seemed to be there with his mom, and the kid smiled into the seat cushions he was leaning against.

"This is Marigold's window replacement, how may I help you?" The flat voice of a tired desk worker answered the phone, and Alexander jumped at the sound.

"Hi, I'm at um..." he looked around then leaned towards the secretary.

"What's the address?"

"9703 Carmine avenue, NW." They whispered back with a small smile.

"Yeah, 9703 Carmine Avenue North West. There's a big window that needs to be replaced. You may have seen it on the news? The one the Butterfly Knight smashed yesterday."

"That is a big window. It will cost you a hundred for the window, and twenty five each half hour it takes for our people to put it in."

Alexander counted a thousand in cash that Gabriel gave him, and did a double take. He had never held that much cash in one sitting before.

"Y-yeah. I've got it. How long will it take you to get here?"

"Tomorrow."

"I will pay two hundred extra if you can get here within the hour."

"...I will see what we can do."

He thanked her and hung up, then smiled at the secretary.

"They will be here within the hour, probably. Do you think I could go up and help clean up before they come?"

The secretary nodded slowly, and he waved at them as he backed out of the building.

"Thanks for letting me use your phone!"

* * *

 

Twenty minutes later, and Alexander was back in that office, helping the janitors clean broken glass out of the window frame to make the fitting process easier for the window team. The two janitors assigned to the task were muttering Spanish at each other and Alexander strained to hear them.

_"Why is he doing this?"_

_"Akumas have never been helpful. But they've never left messes because of Ladybug. What is she doing?"_

_"You think its her fault not the akuma's?"_

_"Oh, it's my fault."_ Alexander said casually back at them, making them jump. Alexander dislodged a large shard from the top of the frame with his sword and dropped it into the trash as he dropped back to the ground.

_"Ladybug can only make things better when she has used her lucky charm. She only uses her lucky charm in fights. Since I only talked to them, she didn't need to use it, so she couldn't fix the damage I did."_ He looked out the used-to-be-window, to the streets below and saw a large van with an M on the side come around the corner.

_"That's why I'm out here cleaning up after myself now. I mean..."_ he turned with a sly grin. _"When me and my boss are ruling France, we can't have it be a pig sty, now can we?"_

The janitors looked at each other and shrugged, then continued to help him dislodge glass shards. Alexander watched the van park in front of the building and two people unloaded a large sheet of glass.

"Looks like our window is here." He said, and the other two looked down and nodded.

"We are almost done here, they have good timing."

"Probably cause I'm paying them extra for getting here early." Alexander said as he got the last shards out of the top of the frame. He wiped his hands off on his thighs and approached the edge of the window.

"I'm gonna go check in with them, to make sure they don't charge the business." He stepped out of the window and dropped to the ground, only opening his wings a floor before he hit the ground to slow his descent. The workers opening the trunk of the van jumped at his arrival.

"Whoopsie! Didn't mean to scare you!" He said, raising his hands to show he didn't mean any harm. The two men looked at each other warily.

"I called to replace the window I broke up there. Do you need help getting it up there?"

"We're using a lift out here to get it up so we don't need to go through the building." One of them said, and Alexander nodded.

"Good call. Just yell if you need me. I want to help."

The two men nodded and pulled the ground lift out of the back of their van, then carefully lifted the sheet of glass out as well.

Via some sort of trained maneuverability Alexander could never hope to accomplish, the two men got the glass onto the lift and one of them ran inside while the other got onto the cart with the glass. As he raised the lift, the other man made his way into the room in need of a window and waited on the edge for his partner to bring up the glass.

Alexander watched with his hands on his hips and a smile on his face.

A sound akin to a zip line brought his attention behind him.

Ladybug and Chat Noir stood behind him in battle stances - Ladybug spinning her Yo-Yo, and Chat gripping his staff like a spear.

"What are you doing, Butterfly knight?"

"I'm helping!" He replied. "I'm paying for the window I broke."

"Why would you do that?" Chat asked as his grip on his staff tightened.

"Oh, yes. Community service is all a part of our master evil plan." He made an exaggerated evil laugh, then shook his head. "Since you weren't able to use your lucky charm yesterday, the window stayed broken. I wanted to make up for that. Might as well give back to the people who are gonna have to deal with me for a while."

Chat and Ladybug glared at him, but they all looked up when one of the window crew men cursed. They were fitting it into the frame, but they had lost their grip and it was slipping. Alexander shot upwards and grabbed the side that was sliding out of place.

"You ok?" He asked, and the man on the lift nodded. "Good. Now what do I have to do?"

The man on the inside directed him where to place his corner, and after a few tense minutes where Alexander had to hold the same position for three minutes while the man on the inside sealed the edges, he finally flew back to Chat and Ladybug.

"Well?" He asked as he cracked his shoulders and neck. "What are you gonna do?"

"We're-"

"Excuse me! Mr. Knight?"

Alexander turned to see a business woman holding a clipboard.

"Yes?" She was a foot shorter than him, so he had to lean down a bit to properly meet her eye.

"Is it true you're paying for all of this?"

"Yes ma'am. I just wanted to make what I did yesterday a little less troubling."

"Oh god, thank you!" She sighed, and Alexander thought he saw a few tears forming in her eyes.

"Hey, it's ok, oh, please don't cry."

"I-I'm not, it's fine, j-just... thank you so much, I was worried about paying my workers this semester, I know it's not much but this has saved us money for pay checks."

"No problem, ma'am. It's all part of the evil plan."

She stared up at him with big blue eyes, then burst into laughter.

Alexander turned to the heroes with a shrug and a grin.

"If you wanna defeat me, it's ok. But maybe think about what you're doing before you do. Look at what I've done for the city."

Ladybug and Chat looked at each other and sighed. They looked to be at a complete loss.

Alexander held his arms out, completely open to attack, but none came.

"Nothing?"

Ladybug sighed dejectedly. "We don't even know where to start. If I can't find your akuma, then I can't do anything anyways."

"Oh! That's your problem? I can help with that!" Alexander tapped his chest plate. "Right here. No, not the armor, not like Dysphoria. That was the beta test. Under there. In my chest. Stop my heart and you'll release the Akuma."

Ladybug and Chat Noir stared at him in horror. Alexander just grinned cheekily.

"Until you're ready to see some blood, checkmate, heroes."

He turned to the window team and started counting the money, happily telling them that the job went by faster than he expected, so he was throwing in some extra cash. The two men smiled widely as they drove off, and Alexander said his goodbyes to the businesswoman who had stopped him before.

Ladybug and Chat shared a look as the Butterfly Knight escaped once again into the afternoon. For once, they really had no idea what to do.

"Well, m'lady..." Chat said quietly as the street cleared of the people who came to watch a fight that didn't happen. "Since there's nothing to fight, why don't we go for a walk in the park?"

Ladybug sighed and took his outstretched hand.

"Might as well."

Elsewhere, Alexander and Gabriel celebrated another victory over a few glasses of wine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the legal drinking age in France is 16 for wines/beers and 18 for hard liquers


	6. Full Disclosure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> we take a look at how our heroes have been handling their new circumstances.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my computer kept shutting down as I tried to post this last night and wouldnt work (3 TIMES!!! I HAD TO WRITE OUT THE NOTES AND STUFF 3 TIMES BEFORE GIVING UP!!) i wouldve had this up sooner if it werent for this $500 piece of trash.

**-Four weeks earlier-**

Marinette had not gotten a good night's sleep for a week. She was running on fumes at this point. But she couldn't help it. No, there weren't akumas to fight every night, or tests to study for, but every time she closed her eyes, all she could see was their class's teacher's assistant lying on the ground in agony.

She hadn't forgotten Opia at all. She pushed herself away from her desk and paced her room for the fourth time that day.

"What's wrong, Marinette?" Tikki asked once again, worry evident in her big blue eyes.

"Tikki, I don't understand."

"Understand what?" The fairy flew up to sit on her shoulder.

"I always make everything better. Why didn't the lucky charm fix Opia's injuries?"

Tikki looked away but didn't answer, which only made Marinette worry more.

"Tikki do you know something I don't?"

"Well..." the fairy sighed. "I hoped it wouldn't come to this. Up until now it hasn't been any of your concern."

"Well I'm worried now. Please tell me?"

"The Miraculous are not all-powerful. If they were, holders would reach godly levels of power. Nobody wants that. Some of the restraints to the power are easy to see. The time limit is pretty apparent." Marinette nodded. "Among the miraculous, yours and Chat Noirs are some of the most powerful. Total Creation and Total Destruction are both powerful sides of the same coin. At the moment, though, you are both held back greatly by your own power. Chat Noir can only destroy one thing per transformation, and you can only create one object. But you know that already."

Marinette nodded again, the. Stopped and gasped.

"At the moment? You mean we could do more?"

Tikki flinched and muttered something under her breath before nodding.

"Every Miraculous has a power structure. It is different for each one, and you rise in ranks in different ways for each one, but rising in ranks will unlock new powers and make the ones you already have more powerful."

"Why didn't you tell me this before?" Marinette asked excitedly, but Tikki sighed.

"You didn't need it before! You weren't worried about anything before! Everything was going fine until you started panicking about Opia."

"I wouldn't say fine... we have done our fair share of damages..."

"But you always fixed it."

"Yeah. And I didn't fix Opia, and now I'm worried that I might hurt someone on the outside and not know."

"Would you like to be able to increase the power of your lucky charm to heal injuries like Opia's?" Tikki asked after a moment, and Marinette nodded. Tikki sighed, but smiled.

"Of course you do, you were chosen for having that big heart, weren't you? Well, we can start after you do your homework tomorrow-"

Tikki was cut off by Marinette gasping and standing suddenly.

"What? What's wrong?" She asked.

"Do you think that Hawkmoth could learn about powering up?"

Tikki giggled.

"I highly doubt that, Marinette, he's been acting out without thinking for a long time, and a kwami would never help their holder with information like I do when it would be used for evil. We can do that much, at least."

Marinette sighed in relief and smiled at Tikki.

"So tomorrow you'll help me?"

* * *

 

"The Ladybug miraculous is all about creation. It makes sense that by default, the way to power it up is to create more things." Tikki explained as Marinette sat on her balcony. She had finished her homework and chores extra fast the day to get right to training with Tikki.

"I won't be with you to guide you with this when you are suited up, so I want to make sure you understand exactly what to do before hand." Marinette nodded again, and fiddled with her pencil and notebook, prepared to write down her instructions.

"First, you will use your lucky charm. You know the basics, but what you have been doing is just hoping for something to help you, nothing specific. You need to concentrate on getting something you know you need."

"That's it?"

"It's not as easy as it sounds, Marinette, especially not the first time you try it. It's far easier to just let it do whatever it wants than to have it bend to your will."

"Is there something that's the easiest to make?"

"Glad you asked!" Tikki smiled and flew close to her face. "Things that you hold dear will be far easier to make! If you can envision something's feel, smell, shape, even taste, it will be far easier to make than something you've only see in photos or never seen before."

"So I should start with something I know inside and out?"

"Exactly!" Tikki said excitedly, then gasped and hid behind Marinette as she heard something hit the roof.

"Who are you talking to?" Came the voice of Chat Noir, making Marinette jump.

"Ch-chat! What are you doing here?"

"Ah, well, I was going to ask for some advice."

Marinette looked at him quizzically. "Advice?"

"I haven't seen m'lady, Ladybug, in a long time. Usually I see her at least on a few patrols, even if we aren't fighting. I wanted some advice for asking her if she's ok?"

"She's a superhero, I think she's fine, but... I'm sure she'll appreciate you worrying enough to ask."

"Yeah? But how do I ask?"

"J-just um... call her? Ask her about her day?" She fiddled with her own fingers as she talked, a light blush rose to her cheeks and she hoped he wouldn't notice. Giving advice was one thing she was generally ok at, but giving advice on how to talk to herself was just weird and a bit awkward. She looked up and saw that Chat was furiously writing down what she was saying, and she covered her mouth to stifle the giggle that was bubbling up.

Chat looked at her expectantly, then blushed a bit when he saw her trying not to laugh.

"What are you laughing at?"

"I'm sorry, I just didn't think you came prepared to take notes. You caught me off guard." She smiled softly, and he grinned back.

"I'll do anything for my lady. She's very special to me."

"O-oh. Well, maybe tell her that, and that you've been worried? I always thought it was easy for you to talk to her."

"It is! Just... not always about the important stuff." Chat muttered shyly as he rubbed the back of his head. "Weird things have been happening in my life right now, I don't need Ladybug to up and leave while everything I know is falling apart."

Marinette frowned and reached forward, resting her hand on his knee.

"I'm sure she'll be happy to talk soon."

"You think so?" Chat perked up considerably, and reached for his weapon and phone. "I'm gonna call her now!"

"Wait! No!" Marinette scrambled to get the communication device out of his hands, and he looked confused.

"Why?"

"I-I-it's the middle of the day! What if she has a day job? Or-Or classes? Or lots of homework? I would call her later! Much much later! Like after dinner! You don't want to interrupt her day, and you don't even know if she's suited up!"

"Oh my god, you're right!" Chat gasped as he took his staff back. "I don't wanna come off as clingy. I'll call her later. Thanks Marinette! I owe you!" He jumped back up onto the roof and saluted to her before running off along the rooftops.

Tikki came out of hiding and laughed at Marinette's flustered expression.

"What does he mean? He owes me? What is that supposed to mean, Tikki?"

"Hehe, I think we should worry about that later. For now, lets work on making stuff."

* * *

 

It had taken the better part of the afternoon, but Marinette had not come any closer to making something that looked vaguely like a rolling pin. She had decided to try to make tools from the bakery, and that had seemed to be the easiest, but she was soon proven wrong, as each result came out bent, lumpy, or became something else entirely. Honestly, how she could wind up with a pillow when she was concentrating on "rolling pin" was beyond her. It had been good for screaming into, though.

What made the whole process even harder, however, was that she had to un-transform after every attempt and feed Tikki. It seemed that training was far more tiring on the Kwami than actual battle.

"It's because you're trying something new." Tikki had said between bites of a cookie the size of her head. "Every time you try to increase your power, it takes more out of me.once you can easily make a rolling pin on command, though, I won't get tired as quickly for the next time you want to get stronger."

"Does that mean I could make more than one thing per transformation?"

Tikki nodded as she chewed. "What your working towards now will let you make two things per transformation, and will power up your lucky charm."

Marinette groaned and slumped deeper into her desk chair.

"Only two?"

"Any kind of growth is difficult, Marinette. And two things are better than one." She flew up to Marinette's shoulder once she finished her snack.

"Now, are you ready to try it again?"

Marinette groaned but nodded.

It was going to be a long day.

* * *

 

At half past nine that night, Marinette sat on a roof overlooking a river, donning her hero outfit. Chat hadn't called yet, and she wondered if he forgot for a moment, but reminded herself of him taking his notes earlier. She knew he really wanted to talk to her. Admittedly, she kind of wanted to talk to him too. He had this way about him that was just seeping with relaxation. It was easy to talk with him.

She checked her yoyo for any incoming calls again, then set it down and looked up at the sky.

"Waiting for someone?"

Marinette squeaked and startled before looking to her side where Chat had suddenly appeared.

"Don't scare me like that!" She scolded.

"Sorry," he chuckled, "I couldn't help it. What are you doing out here? I haven't seen you in a while."

"Umm... a friend told me you needed to talk to me?"

"Marinette? I'll have to thank her then, I guess."

"Oh, you don't have to, I-I'm sure she'll be fine."

"Jealous, my lady?"

"No." she rolled her eyes, and Chat chuckled.

"Worth a shot."

He plopped down next to her and they shared several long moments of companionable silence. It wasn't until Chat noticed Ladybug fiddling nervously with her yoyo, that he realized something was up.

"I just wanted to see you, Ladybug. I get lonely on our off weeks."

She nodded and smiled, but her anxious hands didn't stop.

"But if there's anything on your mind, I'm always here to listen."

Ladybug sighed and stopped fiddling, instead choosing to look out over the city as she thought.

"Do you... do you remember that Akuma? Dysphoria?"

"Yeah, how could I forget that wild ride?"

"...we really messed that up."

"What?" Chat sat back, flabbergasted. "But Opia is fine, we saved the day!"

"We hurt Opia. She may have been an Akuma, but no one deserves being hurt. We attacked and she didn't heal."

"Well, that's not our fault-"

"How is it not?" She interrupted. "I did that. What if a civilian got caught in an attack and was seriously hurt? What if I couldn't heal them?"

"Bugaboo, you can't hold that over your head, you always save the day. You're the good guy."

Marinette groaned and tugged on her ponytails.

"That's it! I'm the superhero, people shouldn't be getting hurt because of me! What if I can't save everyone?"

Chat stared at her, as tears welled up in her eyes, and something in him suddenly clicked.

"Oh, ladybug, you can't save everyone... but look at what you've done so far." He stood and held his hand out towards her. She stared at him for a moment, then took his hand and stood. He lead her across the rooftops, and stopped at the edge of one, then looked down to a small cafe that was bustling with people.

"Look, that cafe used to be desolate this time of night. But after that mime we saved went through an Akuma survivor group, he got a job as a real entertainer and brings in crowds to small businesses like that."

"...good for him."

Chat frowned for a moment, before perking up again and leading Marinette away again.

"Remember the zoo keeper and the pigeon man we fought and saved?" He asked as the approached the zoo.

"Yeah?"

"They met each other through a group online of people who have been akumatized. The zoo keeper added a bird sanctuary to the zoo and hired the pigeon man. He had been homeless and jobless before. But now he's got a job where he gets to spend his days with the things he loves."

They had jumped the wall of the zoo, and Chat showed her the new building that had been built for the birds. Marinette stared in shock.

"You keep tabs on everyone we've fought?"

"Well, yeah. It makes patrol fun to check in on people."

Marinette sniffed and rubbed at her eyes, which made Chat panic.

"Hey, hey, don't cry milady! I'm sorry!"

She just shook her head and hugged him.

"I- oh, um... princess?"

"Thanks."

"Oh, no purroblem!"

She laughed, then looked around again.

"Shouldn't we get out of here? The zoo closed at eight. Aren't we trespassing?"

"I made an agreement with the zookeeper! He's pretty cool and said I could come by anytime, as long as I didn't let any animals loose."

Marinette laughed, which made Chat smile.

"But still, we should get going."

"Whatever you say, milady."

* * *

 

They relaxed on a rooftop that overlooked the river. A few blocks over, somebody shouted incoherently, but neither of them moved to find out what it was about. It didn't seem too panicked.

They instead watched the river and the city lights. There was a storm on the horizon, and they could smell the petrichor in the air.

"Hey Chat?"

"Yes princess?"

"Have you seen Opia since she was hurt?"

She was met with silence, so she looked at Chat, who seemed deep in thought.

"I was running out of time by the time the ambulance came, and I didn't find out what hospital they were going to take her. I have no idea where she went after, and she hasn't been to school since."

"You know what school she goes to?"

"I... uh... well I went to the main high schools in the area and asked around... not like I already knew."

Marinette nodded.

"I hope she's ok."

"Yeah."

* * *

 

Monday rolled around and Marinette found she slept far better after her talk with Chat. She still worried, but at least she was getting more than four hours each night.

Unfortunately, she couldn't say the same for Adrien.

When he came to class ten minutes late with heavy bags under his eyes, Alya, Nino, and Marinette all looked at each other with worry. Adrien apologized to the teacher and sat down without looking at any of them, but when Nino rested his hand on his shoulder, he tilted his head to rest on Nino's hand. At least he wasn't ignoring them on purpose, it seemed.

After class, the three of them jumped on the chance to ask him what was wrong.

"Last Saturday my dad was hosting a party up north of the city, and this storm rolled in..." he sighed after they stopped asking panicked questions. "two of the guests left and got caught in it and drove off the road or something. I spent all Sunday helping him fend off the press and try to track down their daughter."

"Why was the press going after you?" Nino asked, and Adrien looked at him oddly.

"The girl's parents died in the crash, Nino. The media tried to say my dad knew it would happen and it was some weird form of vehicular manslaughter."

Alya and Marinette stared at each other wide-eyed, but Adrien waved them off as the next teacher walked in.

"Nobody is pressing charges and all the other guests testified for dad, so it's ok. I just didn't get sleep is all."

The girls returned to their seats, but honestly, they were both a bit too shocked to fully pay attention to the math lesson. How Adrien was taking notes through it all was unbelievable enough; though Marinette did see his head bob a few times as if he was falling asleep.

* * *

 

Tuesday, things did not seem any better.

Adrien was on time. in fact, he was in class before Alya and Marinette, even though he usually waited for Nino. But he was staring into space with a grimace on his face.

"Adrien? Are you ok?" Marinette asked after they had stood in front of him for a few seconds without him noticing. He jumped nearly out of his chair in response.

"Huh?"

"Did something else come up about the accident?" Alya asked softly, and Adrien shook his head.

"No, it's... uh... just been thinking a lot..."

"Anything you wanna talk about?" Alya asked, just as Nino walked in.

Adrien ran a hand through his hair and sighed, which peaked Nino's interest.

"What is it, bro?"

"My dad's been weird for the last week or so, like, even before the party thing. Like, a few days after Opia came to our class. That long. He usually holes himself up in his office, but he always eats with me for dinner when he doesn't have a deadline due, and I know he doesn't right now. But he hasn't even given me any work to do and even Nathalie is worried about him then yesterday he-" he stopped and frowned, then looked at Marinette. She turned a little pink under his gaze, as normal.

"You want to go into fashion so you probably know about my dad's policy on interns, right?"

"U-uh, yeah, he-he doesn't t-take any?"

Adrien nodded and looked at his hands.

"Yesterday I come home from fencing and there's a total stranger wandering the halls and he introduces himself as my dad's new intern."

Marinette gasped and frowned. She knew that Gabriel Agreste would never do something like that without some big announcement, at least.

"So he hired some random guy?" Nino asked.

"It's not just that, I'm just... fed up with him not telling me anything. Alexander said he was going to take my place in photo shoots so that I can "have a social life." Why wouldn't my dad tell me he was going to do something like that?"

"Well he sounds like a blessing, man!" Nino said, and Adrien looked at him with pure confusion, so he continued. "Dude, you won't have such busy days, so you can hang out with us more! You can spend the night at my house without worrying about getting home for an early shoot!"

Adrien smiled and relaxed at his words.

"You're right. I shouldn't hate Alexander for making my life a little easier."

The three smiled at him, happy to see him a little less troubled.

"You know," Alya said suddenly, "I think I heard we're getting a transfer student in class soon. I wonder what they'll be like?"

* * *

 

Nearly two weeks later, Chat Noir and his beautiful lady got the shock of their lives.

He had suspected the usual Akuma attack. Someone upset over something or other. It had been quiet for weeks, and they knew it was about time for another one to show up.

He had gotten word of a man with wings dangling another man out a window with a sword to his neck, and was instantly running across the rooftops. Fencing could wait.

He met up with Ladybug along the way, and she smiled at him.

"You're looking considerably better, milady!" He called out over the rushing wind.

"You're not too bad yourself!" His ears perked up. Was she flirting back? Today was a great day for crime fighting.

"What do you suspect we're up against?" Ladybug asked.

"I heard something about wings and a sword, so maybe an angry swordsman? Looking to retrieve his honor?"

"From a business man?" She laughed. It sounded like bells to his ears.

"Maybe he foreclosed his dojo?"

"Maybe." She giggled, then her attention went elsewhere as she pointed out the shattered window.

"He'll probably expect us to go through the window. Let's go through the building."

"Yes ma'am!"

They landed on the street and found the elevator. The building hadn't been evacuated, so there must not be any other damage.

It took a few seconds to get to the floor, and Chat happily rocked back and forth and hummed. Ladybug laughed as he tried to sing along to the terrible elevator music.

When they reached their floor, they rushed out and threw the door open, expecting a fight to already be going down.

They found a man in iridescent armor and wings talking calmly to the business man he was supposedly dangling out a window. They both jumped when they rushed in, and the Akuma quickly had his sword pressed back against the man's throat, but there wasn't any real intent in his movements.

The man muttered something that Chat couldn't make out.

"Let him go!" Ladybug called out, and the Akuma let the man go fairly quickly. He... wasn't there for the man. He was luring them out.

No Akuma ever planned like this, and no Akuma ever just wanted to talk.

What he said didn't make any sense. He was explaining Opia's disappearance. Something about... an uncle?

This wasn't how things were supposed to go. They were supposed to fight and cure him and return everything back to normal, but here they were; watching him back flip out of the shattered window and fly away. Neither of them moved until he was gone, and neither of them really knew what to do. But they supposed they should contact Opia's parents.

* * *

 

Opia's mother had a number in the paper for the missing persons section. Ladybug made the call while Chat ran to the bathroom. His time limit was counting down, and he needed to recharge Plagg before they met with the parents.

When he was back in action, Ladybug had to change back, so he took her place waiting at the cafe they had set up as the meeting place.

He met the eyes of a child curiously staring at him from across the room and smiled. The kid smiled back and made a hand motion that looked like cat ears on his head, so Chat let his ears flick back and forth, which delighted the kid.

"Chat noir?"

He looked up at an older woman who seemed very tired.

"Yes?" He stood, "are you Opia's mother?" She nodded, so he pulled a seat out for her, and she thanked him as Ladybug returned, fully charged and with a plate of cookies.

"You said you know where Opia is?"

Ladybug explained.

"This new Akuma said he knew where she went. He mentioned something about her going to go live with an Uncle Louise?"

The woman's eyes widened and filled with tears.

Not, at all, what either of them expected.

They spent the rest of the meeting trying to calm down the hysterical mother, and left with no questions answered.

* * *

 

That night, Ladybug met up with him during his patrol. Both of them were on edge.

"Chat, I need to talk to you."

"Yes, bugaboo?" He smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. She seemed to understand.

She led him to sit on the awning of the building they stood on, and sighed.

"I didn't think that this would be that big of a deal, but after today..." she looked anywhere but him. "The past few weeks I've been... training. Outside of battle. After Opia got hurt because of us, I couldn't get it out of my head that people could get hurt because of us. So my Kwami has been guiding me to learn how to power up my lucky charm."

"Really? You can do that?"

"It will heal more serious injuries caused by Akuma attacks. And it stretched out the time limit for me."

"How can I do that too?"

"I don't know. You'll have to ask your Kwami. Each one is different. But... that's what's been bothering me today. I mean, clearly that Akuma was different. We don't know what the point of him telling us about Opia was."

"He could just be a messenger."

"Why would an Akuma be a messenger? They aren't turned just Willy-nilly, they have reasons behind what they do! So why would hawkmoth have him do that?"

They looked over the skyline in silence as they lost each other in thought. It was Chat who broke the heavy quiet.

"You don't think... could hawkmoth be evolving, like you are?"

Ladybug didnt answer right away.

"My Kwami said that it could be possible, but it could also have been some sort of dirty work he couldn't show his face for. We... we can't know for sure yet. He hasn't shown any signs of growing in the past."

Chat nodded.

"How can we know?"

"Maybe... if the Akuma comes back, with another boring task? I'm not really sure."

"Thank you for telling me, Lady." Chat said carefully. As he stood. "I don't know what's going on, anymore than you do. But... I want to get stronger too. So I can protect you. What kind of sidekick would I be if I couldn't have your back?"

Ladybug smiled up at him and the tense situation dissipated into the crisp night air.

"Thank you, Chat. I can always count on you."

He beamed, and helped her stand before they went their separate ways.

* * *

 

Alexander had been publicly announced, and the next day Chloe was all over Adrien for the first time in a few weeks.

"Adrien!" She called as he sat down next the new transfer student, Issac. "I heard about Alexander, have you met him?"

"Yeah, Chloe." He sighed. He didn't like to mean to her, but she was pretty terrible to all his friends, so he let his annoyance come through. "He lives with me, of course I see him." Chloe didn't hear him mumble about how Alexander got to see more of his father than he did, but Issac did. Or, at least he sort of did.

Issac didn't actually know very much French. He could tell Adrien was annoyed, and had said something about his father, but he didn't know the specifics. He gently patted Adrien's shoulder anyways.

"Could you get his signature for me? I tried to ask at his press conference but he left too soon! His body guard wouldn't let me inside either!" She pouted.

"It would be difficult for me, seeing as how he's always in my dad's office, which is basically off limits to me."

"You could at least try! Isn't that what friends do?"

"Not if it would get them grounded for a month, Chloe." Nino said over Issac's head. "Friends look out for each other before anything else."

Chloe looked contemplative, then shrugged and went back to Sabrina. They seemed to be plotting something.

Alya and Marinette seemed suspicious, but Adrien ignored them as Issac tapped his shoulder.

" _Do you have a pencil?_ " He asked in English. " _I just realized I forgot my pencil case at home by accident._ "

Adrien nodded and silently gave him one of his many. He may have gone overboard when he was preparing to go to school, but having a fifty pack of pencils made him popular with his classmates when they forgot theirs.

" _Are you alright man?_ " Issac asked.

" _I'm just kinda stressed out right now. Home has been weirder than usual._ "

Issac nodded and smiled. " _How ridiculous was the Akuma yesterday? I mean, fixing a window? How is that evil?_ "

Adrien halfheartedly laughed along. Yesterday was not a good day, in either of his lives.

* * *

The Butterfly Knight was back, he had heard.

He heard some people saying he had walked into the business he had attacked earlier. Adrien didn't want to let him get away again, so he called Ladybug and they headed over together.hey got there as he was fixing a window.

He shared a look with Ladybug before he came down to talk to them again, and that's when the day went from bad to worse.

He had watched the Knight's eyes light up when Ladybug admitted she didn't know where his Akuma was. Chat thought, for a moment, it was because that made him invincible to them. He was quickly proven wrong when he pointed out the exact spot his Akuma lay hidden.

Chat wanted to puke.

Ladybug was horrified and the Knight laughed at them. They couldn't even move for a few minutes after he left the scene.

He tried to put on a casual air about him as he offered Ladybug his hand and a walk in the park. She accepted. of course she did. They had to talk about this.

"He has to have figured out how to power up." Ladybug muttered as they walked. Chat gripped her hand a bit tighter. "There's no other explanation, why else would he have the Knight fix a window? It doesn't make any sense otherwise!"

"Milady..."

"It's... it's... he's so frustrating! He isn't put off by us! He doesn't care about us at all!" She cried, trying not to make a scene in front of the people on the street. Chat squeezed her hand to get her attention and she looked up to him.

"Roofs?"

She sniffed and nodded, and they both jumped up onto the nearest roof to continue their walk to the park in peace. Relative peace, that is.

"How far along you on your training?" He asked her, which seemed to calm her down a tiny bit.

"I've gotten ten extra minutes to my transformation, and I can make some basic things."

"Wait, can't you already do that?"

"Th-that's the, um, the miraculous doing it, not me. You know how I'm confused by what I get?" He nodded. "I never knew what I was gonna get until I had it. But now I can make things I know I need. But everything is really basic. Like, a rolling pin, or a plate."

"That's... that's still incredible, Lady, you're more powerful than you were a month ago."

She sniffed and smiled at him as the finally got to a park. They found a secluded bench, and sat down together.

"How about you? Did you ask your Kwami about your powers?"

Chat sighed and his ears drooped.

"I did, and he got mad at me. He wouldn't talk to me for a day."

"What? Why?"

"I guess things are different for the black cat miraculous. Since my power is destruction, it's easy to hurt the holder. There have been holders in the past who let the power eat them alive, or something. Plagg isn't going to let that happen to me, so he's put his paw down on all forms of powering up. Even for my transformation time."

"I'm sorry."

"No, it's ok. He's looking out for me. He said that if you were powering up, then working with you could make me stronger by experience, instead of sheer force."

"Well, I don't want you to be eaten by your own power, so I say that's for the best." She sighed and leaned tiredly against him.

"Tired, milady?"

"Yeah. This Butterfly Knight stuff has been getting to me. Been... training a lot more. And A- ah... my friend has been stressed at school, which makes me worry."

Chat held her shoulders and pressed his cheek into her hair.

"We're gonna get through this, Ladybug. I know it's rough. But we've beaten everything else we've come across."

"I don't want to kill him, Chat. He annoys me, but I don't want to kill him."

"Maybe there's a way to stop him without violence. We could ask Master Fu?"

"Maybe..." she muttered, and Chat's timer began ticking.

"You better get going. I'm going to think for a while more."

"You're going to be ok, right?"

She nodded, and he stood up slowly. He gave her hand a kiss before he leapt into the trees, but he couldn't manage a grin at the action, for once.

Now he had to go home, where Alexander was stealing his dad from him.

* * *

No, that Akuma wasn't just ridiculous, he was a goddamned headache. A headache on an already painful migraine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of my least favorite tropes in fanfiction is recounting events that happened in the story from another person's view, but just copy/pasting everything from before with a few extra thoughts thrown in there. nobody sees events the same way as their neighbors. if they did, theres no reason to recount the events from another perspective. this chapter is me balling that trope up and slam dunking it into the trash can.
> 
> Issac belongs to honorablejackass and their fic, American Idiot. I highly recommend that story, its super cute and the main character is a cute bi boy :3c


	7. Chaos and Bloodshed Already Haunt Us

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A person's depression isn't cured by magic, and it rears its ugly head at all the wrong times. Alexander shows his stance on the politics in Paris.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sweats as i drop this off after literally 4 four months and runs*  
> *comes back cause i actually have stuff to say about this*
> 
> Did you guys know its actually really hard to write a depressed character when their depression isnt the "my pillow is wet cause i cry myself to sleep every night" kind of depression that is usually in modern media? yeah, depression where you forget to eat and all you want to do is sleep is really hard to write, especially if you yourself have that exact depression :/
> 
> anyways, major warning for this chapter, cause even though its not nearly as long as I wanted it to be, it covers a lot of shit in a short amount of time. So if you're uncomfortable with transphobia, Islamphobia, gender dysphoria, and depression, be wary about this chapter cause that's the majority of it.

Months had passed since Alexander had fixed the window, and Adrien's summer break had come and went. His time off was split between going to friends houses and giving Alexander tips for modeling. In exchange for his help, Alexander would show him cheap shops around the city that he could bring his friends to. It must have been fun, since their deal continued to keep an air of pleasantries between them when they interacted.

Alexander didn't know what Adrien thought about him, but he liked the kid well enough. There were tense moments between them, but Alexander understood that he sort of came out of nowhere.

As the Butterfly Knight, Gabriel would assign him a task each week. Generally, he would get done in one day. Sometimes things got complicated, but more often than not, his task was to only train with his sword in the attic. Gabriel would stand by as Hawkmoth, watching his movements and correcting his stances when need be.

The most he had done, so far, was crash a dinner party of some high class business men, and proclaim in front of all the guests that the host was committing tax fraud. He had been told to cause some ruckus - nothing specific - and he had chosen the party at random. Only, weeks after his disruption, the same man was found guilty of embezzlement.

The media was a bit frazzled by him, in both his lives. He caused a little trouble here and there, but somehow the universe turned it around into something more. It wasn't his intention, but he could see that the world was becoming very confused about everyone's moral code.

But he wasn't the only Akuma causing trouble.

Halfway through summer, Gabriel figured out how to power himself up without powering up Alexander as well, so that he could go on with his modeling while Gabriel attacked the town.

It kept the heroes busy fighting bad guys, and served to continually confuse the general public about what exactly Hawkmoth was up to. After weeks having Alexander help out around town, people had thought that they were doing good now. Then he released an Akuma made from a woman obsessed with praying mantises, which resulted in a horrifying Akuma that wanted to eat someone's head, and they were back as the villains.

When Alexander was out as the Butterfly Knight, a news crew often tried to chase him down and get answers, and if they caught him, he would always shrug and give vague answers for them to ponder for the week.

But all of that? That was in his free time, which he seemed to be loosing more and more of as he worked on his intern cover.

* * *

This was what his daily schedule looked like, give or take:

Wake at 9:00. Breakfast at 9:45.

Go over his tasks with Gabriel as soon as he was done eating. This would be when Gabriel would tell him if he would be going out as the Knight at some point during the day.

At 11:00, a tutor would come to teach him about economics, government, or business, depending on the day.

12:30 was lunch, eaten with Gabriel in his office. 

1:30 were a variety of lessons, raging from self defense, to dance. Some days he would only stretch, in order to stay flexible and balanced during photo shoots, and others he learned how to give a proper head butt. Apparently the life of a semi famous person could get dangerous, but he expected that some of the reasons for the classes went into the fact he was also an evil henchman.

At 4:00 he had a break, where he would either take a nap or hover in Gabriel's office.

5:00 was often set aside for any photo shoots or other model duties he had, but some days became just more free time before dinner at 6:30.

Then discussing the day with Gabriel in his office, sometimes going out for a little trouble, and then turning in to rest up before doing the same thing the next day.

It was structured, and completely different from his life before, where he was rarely watched outside of school. The near-constant surveillance tended to wear him thin some days, but at least he had breaks. At least he could escape to Gabriel's office when he needed it, and he wouldn't be disturbed there.

* * *

August 19th marked the day that some aspect of this life would change forever.

Alexander had break until dinner, and had managed to make a small cushion fort on the couch in the corner of Gabriel's office. He tapped away on the smart phone Gabriel had gotten for him, when said man suddenly stood from his desk, causing him to startle and nearly fall off of the couch, some of the pillows following him.

"I have something I want to try." He said, "come up to the attic." He left his office, abandoning Alexander to flail under the weight of his now collapsed fort.

Alexander caught up to him at the ladder to the attic, and lead the way into the moth-filled room.

The insects fluttered as he walked in, but settled only a few feet away.

"So what's up, boss?"

"We have been working hard all summer. You've done more than I ever really thought possible, and even better, the public doesn't openly hateyou. But I've been reading up on what the full extent of my powers can be, and I believe that we can try a little experiment."

"Which is...?" Alexander rocked back and forth on his feet as an excited tick.

"Try to become the Butterfly Knight without me."

He froze mid-rock. "I can do that?"

"You should be able to, with practice, yes."

Alexander grinned and took a few steps away from Gabriel, closed his eyes and tried to concentrate.

. . .

Nothing happened.

"I believe it may help if you get angry. You came close to changing when you had a panic attack that one time."

"Really? Huh." He frowned, then looked up at the ceiling. 

As Gabriel watched, the Butterfly pattern on his chest glowed with dark magic from under his dress shirt. The roots of his hair became a pale orange, but wasn't nearly as vibrant as his Akuma form.

He opened his eyes slowly, looked down at his hands, which were glowing with a dark light like that of the magic in his chest. He raised his eyebrows and closed his eyes again, and the dark magic worked its way up and down his body. As he steadied his breath, wings sprouted from his back and the rest of his body was covered with the dark glowing.

When he finally opened his eyes and looked up at Gabriel again, he felt just as he always did after transforming. Gabriel looked pleased.

"Did I get it right?" He tried looking over his back at his wings, but he wasn't quite that flexible. Instead, Gabriel paced around him, nodding slowly. He stood behind him and lightly ran his fingertips across Alexander's wings, making him shudder.

" _Perfect_." He breathed, "since I can make an Akuma separate from you when you are not activated, I wonder if I can make one when you have transformed yourself?"

"We might as well try." Alexander murmured, leaning back into Gabriel as he rested his hands on his shoulders.

"Is there something you want in particular? We haven't caused trouble in a while, and the public may get suspicious."

"A PS4 would be nice..." Alexander half joked. He had been interested in the current consoles for some time, but all he could ever afford was the cheap old things from the thrift store.

Gabriel stepped away from him suddenly, catching him off guard and making him nearly fall over. He had leaned more weight on him than he realized.

"Come back by dinner. A good villain is prompt."

The unfeeling response confused Alexander, but he shrugged it off and flew out to terrorize the city.

* * *

Being mean wasn't something he excelled at. Being passive aggressive, sure. Petty, most definitely. But being a bad person for little to no reason always felt weird to him. He had grown more accustomed to it over the months, but he still felt odd when he wasn't helping someone in some way.

That's why he tried to make acts of kindness look mean. He took small crimes out of proportion; beating the crap out of a pickpocket, vandalizing the car of a person who double parked - to the point it was nearly undrivable.

Someone on the streets who saw his acts had told him he was chaotic good. He didn't know what that meant, but he liked the sound of it.

As he scanned the city from the air, he tried to pick up on any hints of distress. It wasn't until he flew over his old neighborhood that he found something of interest.

A small crowd had congregated on the sidewalk in front of an old antiques shop. While he had never visited it personally, he had met the owner when his mother had invited him over for dinner one night.

Now, the Somalian man was covering a young teen in a hijab.

Without a second thought, Alexander dropped from the sky and landed in front of the man while twirling his sword.

"What seems to be the problem, officers?" He asked sarcastically. He had no intention of asking the group of white people what was going on when two people of color sat at the center of their circle. He turned to the man covering the teenager.

"Are you ok?"

"They attacked her when she left my shop." The shop owner said through a thick accent. "Tried to take off her Hijab. Pushed her around."

Glancing to the shop, he could see some civilians peeking out through the windows. It was hard to see through the reflections on the glass, though.

"She shouldn't wear that here!" One woman shouted from the group. "If she wants to wear it she can go back to her own country, but we aren't Muslim here!"

"Oh, so no Muslims, but you have an open door policy on assholes?" He asked as he ran his thumb across the flat side of his sword. 

"That's not-" the person nearest to him tried to speak up, but Alexander lunged and stopped right before his sword plunged into their throat. The person gulped nervously, and an odd static tingled through the back of his head. Like tuning right between two radio stations and hearing bits from both shows.

He stood straight and dropped his sword to his side in favor of trying to listen to what was going on with the connection between him and Hawkmoth. He held a finger up when someone in the group tried to speak.

_"-I am Hawkmoth, if you agree to my terms, you can save all those animals you love so much, in exchange for the miraculous of Chat Noir and Ladybug."_

_"...yes."_

Alexander was confused for a second before he realized that Gabriel had successfully made another Akuma while he was out doing his own thing. He laughed out loud, which seemed to put the group of white supremacists on edge.

He didn't blame them, exactly, seeing a person of color laughing maniacally with a sword would put any white racist on edge.

"Today must be my lucky day, cause now there's no way I'll get interrupted by the city's heroes." He said. "Our distraction is up and functional, and far away from here."

Across the city, the roar of some Eldrictch beast could be heard, as if in response.

"W-well what, you're gonna try to stop all of us?" One of them asked. Alexander looked around at them, counting about nine people, and shrugged.

"I don't have anything going on, as long as I'm back for dinner."

As he replied, he spun the sword in his hand around so the blade pointed backwards, and then jabbed it back forcefully, embedding it an inch or two into the belly of the man behind him. He screeched and stumbled back, into another woman, and brought her down with him. He continued to whimper and the woman screamed as he bled over her. Alexander kept his gaze firmly on the group members in front of him, who were starting to look anxious.

"I thought you were some goody two-shoes who punched muggers or something, you've never hurt someone like that!" One person said. Alexander just grinned.

"Times change, and you aren't getting super hero help anytime soon." He turned to the shop owner, who had his wide eyes trained on the man bleeding behind him.

"Go inside, sir. Call the ambulance, if you want. But get her to safety."

He nodded slowly, and broke out of the weakened circle and brought the girl back into his shop.

"Now, who's next?"

A large, burly man stepped forward and cracked his knuckles in an attempt at intimidation. Alexander wasn't very impressed. When he stepped forward to punch him, he just sidestepped, grabbed his elbow, and pushed down until the man's balance was thrown and he stumbled to the ground beside the bleeding man and the woman trapped beneath him.

A woman snuck up behind him, going for his neck, but he was a bit taller than her, which threw her leverage out of the attack. He managed to shake her off his back, and then kicked her down until she was flat on her stomach. With a knee between her shoulder blades, and a foot pinning her wrist out to the side, she was helpless and no one stepped forward to try to help her when they saw the look in Alexander's eyes.

Over the summer, and many Akuma attacks, Alexander had witnessed how Ladybug's regenerative power had seemed to grow in potency. While he had been sent to the hospital after being defeated the very first time, a different Akuma had caused someone to loose their foot in an explosion during the summer, and Ladybug's special charm had fixed it up not even three minutes later.

A few fingers had nothing on a whole foot.

The woman beneath him squirmed, but stopped suddenly when he held his sword just over the hand he was pinning with his foot.

"Did you know that France has the largest population of Muslims in Western Europe?" He asked as he brought the blade closer to her pointer finger. "7.7 _million_ Muslims in France." With a sickeningly wet crunch, he severed the woman's finger, and she screamed bloody murder. "That's a 5:7 ratio. That means just within this city, there's a group of maybe seven Muslims who would be happy to take on your little group here." He punctuated his claim by slicing down again and cutting off her middle finger as she sobbed against the sidewalk.

The other five began shuffling backwards, and when they saw that Alexander noticed, they took off running. Immediately, he shot up and raced after them, leaving the crying racists curled up in the streets.

He was just about to reach the back of a straggler's shirt, when someone grabbed onto his sword arm and forced him to a stop.

He turned, ready to unleash hell onto the person who kept him from his hunt, but any fight left his body when he stared down into piercing grey eyes on a chubby, brown face.

"Please." His mother hiccuped. "You're my only connection to my daughter." he looked past her and saw the door to the shop slowly closing. She must have really booked it to catch up to him.

He gulped and turned to her fully, but found any words he had were stuck in his throat. It had been months since he last saw her, the news reports had left her in the dust, and all he knew was what Mehmet told him when he would secretly check up on her. Mehmet was oddly vague about any of the interactions, though.

He took a deep breath and gently pried her hands off of his arm.

"W-who are you?" He asked, and he took pride in the fact that his voice only shook a little bit.

"A-Anastasia Belmonte. You know what happened to my daughter, Opia? Th-the-there's just nothing found out about her, did she-"

Alexander took her hands in his and looked down at her softly.

"Yes, Opia is dead."

She looked down and sniffled.

"No one ever found a body... I hoped..."

"Ma'am. I knew Opia. Came to the meeting for people who remember being akumas. I was infiltrating it, of course, but do you know why Opia became an Akuma in the first place?"

She looked up at him, still with tears streaming down her face. He hated seeing her like this, but he had to try to make her understand.

"Opia was a boy."

Anastasia's face twisted into a confused grimace.

"No, no. I gave birth to her. I was - am - her mother. I know my own daughter."

He slowly shook his head and led her to the curb to sit.

"Opia was depressed because you wouldn't listen to him when he tried to come out as trans." There was a burning in the back of his throat as he spoke, threatening to spill over as tears. He managed to hold them back and not make a spectacle of himself, but barely. Talking about his life before was reopening old scars. "He tried to kill himself the day he was turned. He was stuck in a cycle of exulansis."

"Exul..."

"A state where you are so tired of trying to explain something, that you give up talking about it at all."

She frowned deeply and and hit her knees.

"She shouldn't have given up! She didn't explain it to me at all! How am I supposed to know? If she just kept correcting me instead of killing herself i-"

The fire behind Alexander's eyes started breaking through, and he stood up as his mother continued to rant. Without a word, he kicked off from the ground and flew back to the attic, leaving his mother's angry rant, and the sobs of the people he hurt behind him.

When he touched down in the attic, a wave of pink washed over the city and a now-white butterfly fluttered back in after him.

He didn't care; he just slid down the wall and buried his face in his knees. He felt Gabriel's hands on him, but all that came from him was a sharp sob as he finally cried.

"Who did this? What happened?" He asked angrily. Alexander just shook his head.

It was quiet besides his crying for a few minutes, until Gabriel spoke up again.

"Can you change back?" He asked softly, and Alexander looked down at himself to see that he was, in fact, still in full armor. He sniffed and concentrated on the feeling of magic in his veins, and reversing its effects. The armor evaporated a moment later, and Gabriel helped him onto his feet.

"Feel better?"

Alexander shrugged.

"Saw my mom."

"...ah."

"She asked me about myself using my dead name... still refuses to accept that transgendered people are out there..."

"You know I can call Mehmet off, be done with her."

Alexander shook his head quickly as they made their way into the hallway.

"No, as much as I don't appreciate her for being a transphobe, nobody deserves what my dad dishes out. She still... she still took care of me, and kept me safe from him. I feel better about leaving if Mehmet checks in to make sure nothing has happened."

"Well from what he says, He and Joao have managed to sneak into your parent's lives well."

"Joao? My driver is with him too? He never mentioned that."

"Really?" Gabriel stopped in front of Alexander's bedroom door and looked perplexed. "Strange. Anyways, you have an hour before dinner, so why don't you get some rest and... recover."

Alexander gave a broken smile and nodded before slipping into his room.

He shed his clothes as he walked across his room to his bathroom. As he waited the few seconds it took to get the shower hot enough, he stared at himself into the mirror as it slowly began to fog.

He couldn't deny the feminine curve of his hips; how his jawline without makeup was soft, unlike Gabriel's. He couldn't even look at his chest without growing uncomfortable.

His mother's words repeated in his head over and over until they lost meaning and his bloodshot eyes were tearing up again. When his reflection became nothing more than a fuzzy blob on the mirror, he stepped into the shower and sighed.

He washed his hair once, twice, three times before conditioning, and scrubbed down every inch of skin he could reach. The monotony of cleaning himself was relaxing, and always helped him calm down from anxiety. If it weren't for his body being wrong, he might just live in the shower; repeatedly cleaning himself until his skin was raw and wrinkled.

But as the water washed soap from his skin and conditioner from his hair, his thoughts traveled back to the actions that lead to his need for a depression shower.

His mother catching up to him; running after the white supremacists; cutting off one's fingers; defending the shop owner and Muslim girl.

His neighborhood was always a bad one, according to their neighbors. He and his mom had only been there a few months, and while she was working most of the time and was not around, he had seen more hate crimes in that three block stretch of apartments and shops than he had noticed in his years living in Spain.

The area had a large Muslim population, among other racial groups, living in it, and somehow that made white people think they could come through and spray paint slurs and other offensive language on apartments. That was the least of it, too.

Alexander slammed his fist against the wall of the shower as the thoughts of the crimes that went unnoticed flashed through his head.

He couldn't stand to the side and watch people like him get killed anymore.

* * *

Once again, Mehmet stood nervously outside the old door covered in peeling paint. Joao's hand was steady in his, and he was proud that he wasn't sweating as badly as the first few times they had been in this situation.

Joao was still as cool and handsome as ever, even in a high waisted skirt and tight button up. They had trimmed their beard to look more presentable.

The Belmontes had invited them to a semi-fancy dinner with some of Anastasia's co-workers.

Mehmet tried not to reach up and loosen his tie. He wore suits, but he could never get the knots on ties right, so he usually just wore a clip on. Joao had insisted on wearing a real one to this, and the seconds it took them to tie his tie for him nearly made him pass out. He had been so close, if he had leaned just a little closer-

He shook himself out of his thoughts when the door opened and Anastasia stood in the doorway, looking confused. There's weren't any other guests inside, and the area didn't seem to have been cleaned for a party. Anastasia herself seemed frazzled, like she just witnessed something terrible.

"Joao? Mehmet? Why are you- oh!" She covered her mouth and suddenly looked very apologetic. "I'm so sorry I must have forgotten to tell you! I cancelled the dinner tonight. Something came up."

They looked at each other then Joao looked worriedly to her.

"What's wrong? Can we help?"

"Oh... it would be rude of me to turn you away now that you've made each other pretty... come in, it's nothing big, I just..."

She led them into the small kitchen where a tub of ice cream sat with a spoon sticking out of it.

"Where's your husband?" Mehmet asked as he glanced around the silent apartment.

"He's... out. A bar, I think."

Joao gently took her hand and smiled to try to make her feel more comfortable. Anastasia stared at their joined hands for a moment, then looked up at them with anger in her eyes.

"Is it possible to arrest one of those Akumas?"

Joao stepped back in shock and they looked back at Mehmet. He met their gaze with the same shocked confusion.

"Excuse me?"

"I talked with The butterfly Knight today, and he claimed to have known my daughter better than me. Me. H-he said Opia was a boy. Don't you think I would have known that, as her mother?"

"Well trans people do exist, ma'am." Joao said with an annoyed lilt to his statement.

"Well, I mean, I know _you_ are, Joao, but as my own daughter, she should have felt comfortable enough to tell me how she felt. I don't remember her ever saying anything."

"It took me fifteen years to come out to my family, Anastasia. I didn't know I was nonbinary until I was about seventeen, and even though my family has been nothing but supportive, coming out continues to be the most terrifying experience of my life." They turned to the door to leave. "Don't act like you would have been able to do it without a hitch. Come on, Mehmet."

Mehmet glanced worriedly between Joao and the woman he was supposed to be protecting. He finally turned to Anastasia, gave her a quick nod, and said quietly:

"It can be hard for anybody to come out as LGBT. Just because you, as a straight cis woman, thinks that coming out is just a matter of  saying a couple of words, doesn't mean that it is. Give me a call if anything happens, have a nice night." He followed Joao quickly, shutting the door and making his way down to the car where they were waiting.

He slid into the passenger side while Joao sat, gripping the steering wheel but not starting the car.

He sat silently, mulling over what happened, until he heard a muffled sniffle. He whipped his head around, jostling his glasses, and saw Joao with their hands covering their face. He fixed his glasses with one hand and reached out to comfort them with the other, and Joao leaned into his touch as they cried.

"I-I hate straight people, I'm sorry, b-but they fucki-ing suck... how can so many people be s-so ig-i... stupid? You're like th-the only tolerable one I know."

Mehmet drew his hand back for a second in confusion, but put it back when Joao's sobs grew.

"Joao..." Mehmet felt a lump in his throat form that tried to keep him from forming words. He swallowed it and pushed on firmly. "Joao, I'm gay as fuck."

They paused, mid-sob, and slowly looked over at him, confusion written all over their tear-stained face.

"B-but you always seem so uncomfortable when we do the dating schtick. I thought you didn't like someone thinking..."

Mehmet tried to hide his blush by looking away. Of course they noticed his awkwardness.

"Well... you know, just cause I like masculine people doesn't mean fake dating someone while spying on the parents of an up and coming model isn't weird... you know?" He scratched his cheek nervously.

That first meeting with the couple had spelled out the situation pretty clearly for the both of them. It wasn't hard to piece everything together, besides how exactly Alexander had wound up where he was now.

Joao started sobbing again and leaned across the console to press their face into his shoulder.

"J-Joao? What-"

"I'm so glad Alexander got o-out of there..." they cried. Mehmet scooted closer and wrapped an arm around their shoulders to bring them closer after a shocked moment. They left wet stains on his sleeve when they pulled away to shift and be more comfortable. He began running his fingers through their hair to help calm them down. Now wasn't the time to be flustered over contact.

"Is it weird I feel protective over him even though I'm just his driver? Seeing what he's had to put up with at his old home just..."

Mehmet pushed his glasses up with the back of his hand and hummed in agreement.

"A family can be a driver, and bodyguard, and a model."

Joao laughed and shook their head in disbelief. "That's w-was bad."

"What do you expect from the brawn of the family?"

They only laughed harder and pulled away from him slowly.

"We b-better go ahead and drop the car off. Thanks for all that."

* * *

 

Dinner was quiet. Usually, Alexander talked back and forth with Gabriel during dinner, so he never noticed how little Adrien added to the conversation. Now, with his mind racing, and fork poking dejectedly at his peas, he felt just how oppressing the silence had become between the three of them.

Adrien glanced between Alexander and Gabriel, confusion written across his face.

Gabriel watched Alexander prod at his food instead of eating it. He opened his mouth to say something, but Alexander beat him to it.

"Adrien, h-how's school?"

Adrien jumped at the sudden break in silence.

"It's alright. We've just been preparing for high school mostly."

Alexander nodded. "You excited?"

"Yeah! Well... except one of my first friends says she's going to an all girls boarding school, so I probably won't see her much."

Alexander finally shoved some peas into his mouth and frowned.

"Which friend? You've told me a little about Nino... and Alya, was it?"

"Oh, um... it's Chloe, you know, the mayor's daughter?"

"Oh. I think Mehmet told me he caught her trying to sneak in here to see me before. Weird."

Adrien looked down at his food and muttered, "I think she just wants your autograph. She likes models."

Alexander laughed and nodded as he sat back.

"I'm glad you're having a good time."

"Thanks, Alexander." Adrien smiled slightly.

Gabriel watched them talk with raised eyebrows. Alexander could see him looking confused from his place at the head of the table.

As his and Adrien's conversation lulled, he stood with his plate and ran a hand through his hair.

"I-I'm not feeling too well, Gabriel. I'm gonna wrap this up and go to bed."

"Do you need anything? Medicine?"

"No, I just..." he glanced away, feeling the gnawing depression in his stomach that he had held back for months. "I have some ideas, so you should come by my room later so we can talk, if I'm not asleep."

Gabriel watched him, studied him, then slowly nodded when Alexander started towards the kitchen with his plate.

* * *

Alexander wasn't in bed when Gabriel came up to check on him twenty minutes later. Instead, he found him in front of his mirror, with his knees to his chest, staring sadly at his reflection.

"Alexander?"

Immediately, he jumped and wiped at his eyes as he turned. He was wearing a baggy t-shirt and basketball shorts - his usual sleeping wear, so he wasn't wearing his binder.

"You scared me..." he muttered.

"Apologies. You said you had ideas?"

"I... uh... well..." he fiddled with his shirt and looked at the floor. "It's about what happened today."

Gabriel closed the door and pulled up the chair that usually sat near his dresser.

"About your mother?"

"No. Well... sort of? Before that. I lived in a bad neighborhood here. It was impoverished, and the only people who lived there were immigrants who couldn't afford anything more than the bare minimum. That lead to a lot of violence, 'cause you know white people!" He chuckled mirthlessly as he continued, "if there's a place full of people of color you bet they're gonna attack them then blame it on them!"

Gabriel frowned. "I-"

"Right, maybe you don't know... but my point stands. It wasn't the people who lived there that made it bad, it was the people who felt that we were subhuman that made it bad."

"What does this have to do with today?"

"There was a group of white supremacists outside a shop in my old neighborhood today, tormenting a Muslim girl. I fought them off. Stabbed one, cut off another's fingers..."

"So you did good again?" He asked it like it was a bad thing, but he was also smiling.

"I assure you, a person of color chopping a white woman's fingers off to defend a "person of interest" is not going to be painted in a positive light by the media. You realize the media is run by white morals, right?"

Gabriel frowned again and considered what he said.

"I never thought about it."

"Yeah." Alexander said. "But half the media does like me. At least a little bit. My question for you is: how long has the current mayor been in office?"

Gabriel looked confused.

"What?"

"The mayor. How long has he been in office? Do you have a system like America, where it switches every few years? Or does someone have to fight him out of office?"

"I can't see where you're going with this."

"Come on, please just answer?"

Gabriel sighed, then counted his fingers as he did some math in his head.

"He's been reelected four times, at the end of this term he'll have been in office for twenty four years."

Alexander's jaw dropped.

"That has to be illegal. He must have messed with the votes."

"I'm sorry?"

"Gabriel, how could a man who puts his daughter before the city he is meant to protect be reelected four times? When was the last time he actually did something good?"

"He's had many public art pieces put up around the city..."

Alexander grabbed his face so he couldnt look away, and got close to him.

"Gabe, Paris has the fucking Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. It doesn't need much more than that. What this fucking city _needs_ is someone to speak up for the huge amount of minorities who live here. Unless the art he starts putting up is celebrating them instead of the heroes and slave-owning ancestors, he's not doing shit."

Gabriel frowned deeper, though it looked comical, with his face being squished by Alexander.

"What are you trying to say?"

He sighed, let go of his face, and slumped against the mirror behind him.

"I don't know... I want... I want to do something, you know? I'm a minority that actually has some standing in the city now, and I'm actually educated to say something about it. But..." he looked back at the mirror, gaze lingering on his chest before shuddering and looking away. Gabriel watched all of this, perplexed.

"Your body is making you uncomfortable?"

Alexander hesitated, then nodded slowly.

"I can't say I understand." He sat back and ran a hand through his hair. "But aren't there drugs for hormones? Or..."

"....You mean T? Yeah, but it can cost up to ₣3,000 monthly. There's no way I can afford that right now."

"I don't know... you're a model now. Your boss is rich, and as little as I know about it all, I doubt it's going to make you grow a beard overnight."

Alexander smiled dreamily. "Wouldn't that be the best? I'd love to have a beard..."

Gabriel chuckled and stood, holding his hand out to Alexander, who took it and pulled himself up off the floor.

"You rest. I'll sit on your 'take down the government' idea, but you need to feel better before you even try to put it into action, alright?"

Alexander nodded with a laugh and crawled into his bed as Gabriel made to leave.

"Gabriel?" He asked quietly, and when he stopped to turn to him, he smiled. "Thanks. You really saved me." Gabriel nodded and left, turning off the light as he did so."

* * *

The thing about depression, Gabriel learned, was that one supportive talk would not cure it. The next day, Alexander slept until noon and was lethargic when he finally wandered to his office with a mumbled apology.

He could easily tell his tutors it was because he was getting sick, but he couldn't ignore the way he sighed when he caught sight of his reflection.

For the first time, Gabriel looked up how to transition. He didn't think it could have been too much, but when the cheapest costs turned out to be 2,500 USD, in Puerto Rico, his mind backpedaled.

That was only for the top surgery. That plus the hormones made even _his_ wallet cringe.

He changed tabs when Alexander wandered into his office again. He was taking the day off, and had gone down to find something to eat. It seemed his food of choice was a cracker.

"Is that all you're going to eat?"

Alexander looked at the cracker as if he hadn't thought about whether it would actually sustain him or not, then shrugged.

"Meh, I'll get something else later."

Gabriel frowned and tapped his pen against his desk.

"Just focus on resting." He finally said as he turned to the designs on his desk.

Alexander collapsed back onto his couch in the corner and Gabriel turned on his radio for background noise as Alexander rested. The peace was short lived.

_"Yesterday a group of young men and women were violently attacked by the Akuma known as the Butterfly Knight when they were questioning a person of interest. They were concerned about the girl because she wore what they called 'religious propaganda' that is illegal to wear in France, and was at risk of being a part of a terrorist group. The group was reportedly attacked when the Butterfly Knight came to her defense by stabbing one Mike Corolla in the stomach, and cutting off three of Camille Turner's fingers. Our dear superhero's magic managed to save them, but the Butterfly Knight ran off before he could be held accountable. Next we will give Mike and Camille's testimonies and the witness statement given by Anastasia-"_

Gabriel shut off the radio and looked over at Alexander, who was facing the back of the couch.

"I can see what you mean now. My other Akumas never targeted people for non-petty reasons."

"She was just wearing a hijab... not a burka, so it's not illegal..." Alexander muttered from the couch.

"So what do you want to do about it?"

Alexander turned over and Gabriel could see the plan building in his excited gaze.

"When is the next press conference? The fastest way to spread information is getting real media outlets to talk about it."

"And I'm assuming you want to talk more than you did at the last one?"

He nodded, looking far happier than he had the last few days.

"You know my conferences are meant for releasing the new season's designs, right?"

"Well, fashion is a type of art, right?" Alexander asked as he stood and made his way to the desk, and leaned against it. "A hell of a lot of art is about making a statement, so you could do a new line that is a political statement. We can include the binders, in blatant support of trans people. A fancy hijab line in support of the Mulism community. You can talk about that, then I can come up to the podium and roast the mayor!"

Gabriel steepled his hands in front of his face and closed his eyes as he thought. Alexander fidgeted as he watched in anticipation, and bit his lip when Gabriel finally looked up at him.

"It is a big change from what I normally do. A lot of people will be unhappy."

"Fuck them. That's thinly veiled racism."

"I was intending to only make binders for you. If we intend to do a whole line, production costs will change fairly drastically."

"Weren't you the one bragging about being rich last night? And they're useful, unlike the weird shit other designers put on display for their seasons. Imagine getting the street cred of being the first fashion designer to openly support trans people and actually making clothes for them."

Alexander's face seemed to light up at the thought. Gabriel found he couldn't really fight him on something he was so invested in. He sighed, and shoved the designs littering his desk aside and pulled out Alexander's personal binder designs.

"Which of these do you think we should focus on? When we get the trans line squared away, we can look into the other ideas."

Alexander pumped his fist and sat across from him to shuffle through the designs more thoroughly.


	8. Write Day and Night like You're Running Out of Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> speech writing goes a little awry. Alexander adopts Adrien.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The only reason i got this done is because of Nanowrimo, but even then i didnt finish it until last night. I love this story to bits, but its still hard to write sometimes. (In which my chapter title is a direct ironic attack on myself)
> 
> the musical Alexander keeps mentioning is The Color Purple, which is a FANTASTIC musical more people should be talking about, because its about Black women learning to love themselves and each other. literally. they're lesbians, Harold.
> 
> also, I may have wound up coding Alexander as Autistic or ADHD (with hyperfocus, i know both of those have that lol) in this chapter which wasnt my original goal, but works anyways. Hope y'all enjoy that.

Before this, Alexander admittedly never properly bound his chest. Ace bandages and shitty amazon binders were cheaper than spandex binders made specifically for trans people. If he spent too much money on something his mom thought was for a Halloween costume, there was no doubt she would get suspicious.

So suddenly having a wide array of well-built binders to choose from was nearly a holy experience. He had to choose the main designs for the collection, as well as write up the speech he wanted to give, so that Gabriel could review it before he made a fool of himself in front of a bunch of reporters. As much as he was comfortable with his writing ability, Gabriel had been at this much longer, and knew what not to say. Of course, he had a few months to get it all together, but as it turned out, speech writing took more brain power than analysis essays. He had been working at this for a week, and he still only had some choice words to call the mayor.

He sighed and leaned back on his pillows as he let the speech slide off his lap and onto the pages of binder designs scattered across his bed. This was the first real assignment Gabriel gave him as his intern, and he really didn't want to fuck it up, but it was getting late. He stretched his arms above his head, cringing as it pulled on his back, then stood and shimmied out of his jeans in favor of putting on a pair of basketball shorts.

He was about to walk into his bathroom when his window slid open, making him freeze. He slowly turned to see a figure clad in black with a blonde ponytail slipping into his room.

The young girl looked around his room and she smiled as she locked eyes with him.

"So this is a super model's room!" The figure said with a light giggle. "Alexander, I'm sure you already know me, but my name is Chloe Bourgeois, my daddy is the mayor, so of course you know me!"

His eyes widened and he looked past her to his bed, where his poor attempt at a speech was still laying out in the open.

"I just wanted to say that I'm a big fan, and I think giving me your autograph will really give you some, like, publicity or something. If you have my support, then you'll have my daddy's support, and he's the most important man in the city." She smirked at him as he continued to stay crouched over, trying to hide his frame as best he could through his baggy clothes. He didn't dare face her.

"I'm not really interested, and you just broke into my house, so I could have you arrested easily if you stick around any longer."

She harrumphed and began walking around the room. Alexander hadn't realized that she had set her sights on the mess of papers on his bed until she was picking up one of the binder designs with all of his notes on it. 

"Wait! Don't-" He turned and reached for it, but she was across the room and he could only move so fast. He almost considered using his magic, but he didn't need more secrets spilling. Instead, he looked on in dread as the daughter of the man he had dubbed "Public Enemy Number 1" read all of his notes of how a chest binder fit his own chest.

She slowly looked up at him, taking him all in now that he wasn't facing away and hunched over, and her expression pulled up into confusion.

"Are you a girl?"

"No!" Alexander stomped down and balled his fists. "Don't even say that! I am a boy through and through. Don't- don't fucking..." he trailed off and looked away as he lost the willpower to fight.

Chloe looked back at the plans and bit her lip.

"I really do look up at you, you were so cool at the press conference that one time! So handsome!" The way she said "handsome" was a bit strained now, but Alexander could appreciate that at least she tried.

"I can keep this secret, if... if you go out with me!" That smirk was back on her face as if she had found the secret to life, and wasn't going to share it with anyone. Alexander's face twisted in revulsion, both at the thought of dating a minor, and at her slimy act.

"I'm gay."

Her jaw dropped, then looked around nervously and came a bit closer so that he could hear her whisper.

"Y-you can't just say that out loud!"

"Sure I can. I'm gay. Don't blackmail me into dating you, you're like ten."

"B-but! Wh-what if someone else heard you? What if your boss heard you?"

Alexander stared at Chloe as she fidgeted. She didn't seem to be reacting in disgust, but in worry. He raised an eyebrow and held up a finger as he grabbed his phone off of his dresser. She started to say something but he shushed her and gave a slight glare before calling Gabriel, who was probably still in his office. He pushed speaker so that Chloe could hear, and made sure she knew so she didn't say anything.

"Alexander?" He asked when he picked up, "is something wrong?"

"No not really. Just wanted to check something." 

"Yes?"

"You remember back when I first started working with you and said I was probably gay?"

Chloe covered her mouth to keep herself from making a sound.

"Yes. What about it?"

"Just calling to tell you I'm definitely gay. Girls have cooties."

Gabriel laughed and Chloe gave an annoyed huff.

"Thank you for the update, Alexander. How is the speech going?"

"Ya know? I'm actually going to bed right now, just thinking about how gay I am, not about speeches. Uhh, gotta go, suuuper tired."

He ended the call before Gabriel could respond.

He looked to Chloe to find she was sitting next to his bed wth her knees pulled up to her chest. And a thoughtful look on her face.

"Can I admit something?"

"I feel like you will whether I say yes or not. You did break into my room, anyways."

"...I think I like girls."

"Uh-uh."

"But aren't I supposed to like boys?"

"I don't know what you're supposed to do, I'm not you. But I know I'm supposed to report break ins to the police."

"But-"

"Chloe. I don't give a shit who you like. You broke into my room, and went trough my shit. Does your dad know you're here?"

"Of course he does, he brought me!"

As he let that sink in, a sly smile found its way onto his face.

"He did, did he? And did he know you were breaking in?"

"Well I couldn't get past your guard any other way."

"What else does he do for you?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Chloe, I'm sure you can be a great person, but your dad is not the best guy. I am writing him a letter to give him some... ideas on how to appeal to the community more. If I give you my phone number, will you give me info about all the sweet things he does for you?"

Her eyes widened.

"Really? You'd give me your phone number?"

"If I do, you can't tell anyone I'm trans. If you give me what I want, I won't tell anyone you're a lesbian.And you get to have a model in your contacts."

She considered this, then gave a firm nod, and handed her phone over for him to give her his number.

A few minutes later, Alexander watched as she crawled out of his window, hopefully for the last time, and sighed. He made sure to lock the window before he went to his bathroom and stared at himself in the mirror, making sure to keep his gaze set on his neck up.

He brushed his teeth roughly, like he usually did, and noticed that when he rinsed the brush, the bristles were starting to fray and bend. He never was able to keep his toothbrushes for very long.

Over twenty minutes later, with his face washed and mouth guard in, he tucked himself into bed and laid in darkness.

Anxiety bubbled in the pit of his stomach now that he didn't have his routine to keep him from overthinking. He tried to take deep breaths, and to remind himself that he could always talk to Gabriel, but it could only help so much.

Chloe was bad news. He knew as much from seeing how she had everything, while the people her father spoke for fell to poverty.

In the end, Alexander wasted nearly an hour trying to avoid a panic attack by only adding to the fire that was anxiety. So he turned to his phone to get him the only thing that could calm him down and let him sleep at times like these.

He opened up his music library to find the many broadway musicals he had downloaded. He had learned English just so he could understand the stories in their raw form, and he was proud of himself for doing so, if nothing else.

He found the specific song he was looking for, stuck his phone under his pillow, and laid back once again.

His breath slowly stabilized as the song began, and his eyelids finally grew heavy.

He softly hummed along to the song as he drifted off.

_"When I lay me down to sleep, I will say my prayer..."_

* * *

He was woken the next morning by Gabriel's kwami. Nooroo rarely left Gabriel's side, and the poor thing seemed to always be on the edge of a panic attack, but here it was, staring down at Alexander with its big anxious eyes.

"Gabriel told me to wake you up. He's got a, uh, a sh-shipment of supplies coming in today."

Alexander stared blankly at the fairy. That was too much information for him to process in the morning. Nooroo gave him a slight glare.

He didn't know the fairy well, he didn't even know if it used pronouns like people did. But there was one thing he knew for sure. Unlike his relationship with Adrian, where he wasn't sure where he stood in the kid's eyes, he could always tell It didn't trust him an inch.

The first month or so, when he was acting more as a helper to the general public, nooroo had looked at him like he was the answer to all it's problems. It acted like he was going to bring on a new age, but then he started putting his sword to use, and Nooroo wasn't happy with the chaos that created. For a few weeks, when Alexander would go back to doing good deeds, it would get a glimmer of hope in its eye when it looked at him.

Now, it only glared at him with a dead-eyed remorse.

Alexander coughed to clear his sleep-strained throat and croaked out a weak "uh, what?"

"Gabriel wants you." It snapped.

"Oh. Ok."

He blearily got out of bed and went about his morning routine. Gabriel had to know that he took a long time to wash his face and brush his teeth by now, so hopefully he didn't expect him right away.

* * *

“What on earth are you doing, Alexander?”

“Hmmm.... what?” He looked up from organizing a new box of fabric. It was colorful, stretchy, but a bit stiff - perfect for a line of designer binders.

“Were you singing?”

He flushed hard and stared wide eyed at Gabriel. Sure, he had songs stuck in his head from letting the whole musical play as he slept, but he hadn’t realized that any of it was actually coming out of his mouth.

“Uhhh... no?”

Gabriel gave him an unimpressed look.

“Then who is Shug Avery?”

Alexander grimaced and buried himself elbow deep in fabric, while Gabriel chuckled.

* * *

“ _Shit_.” Gabriel mumbled as he looked over his clipboard. He frowned deeply and chewed on the end of his pen as he thought.

“What is it?” Alexander asked without looking up from a thick iridescent green fabric he had been admiring since he found it at the bottom of one of the boxes.

“Something didn’t come with the shipment, I think I forgot to order it altogether.” He went to his desk and rifled through his drawers for a moment, before finding a sticky note and sighing deeply.

“I forgot they discontinued it... Alexander, what’s the point of reminder notes if I put them where I forget them? Where am I supposed to find that kind of mesh now?”

“When I need to find anything clothing related, I just go to thrift stores. No clue why you use big companies.” Alexander said, “though I’ve never got fabric like this from a thrift shop. Look, it changes color! Like my armor!” He held it up to the light and let it shimmer.

“You really think you could find designer mesh at a thrift shop?”

Finally, he put down the fabric and stood to face Gabriel with a grin.

“Boss, you are talking to the master of thrift shop finds. Once I found a pair of London Underground wooden platforms. You know there’s only like fifteen of those? They go for $50 at least, and I got them for $12. I can find anything if I put my mind to it.”

“Impressive,” He said with a smirk, “I’ll get you out of your lessons tomorrow if you can find five feet of the mesh I need.”

“Get me a picture and it’s a deal.”

* * *

Alexander stretched across the back seat of the sleek black car as Mehmet slid into the front passenger seat and smiled at Joao. They smiled back then turned to Alexander.

“You got control of the aux cord, buddy.”

Alexander grinned and plugged in his phone, quickly pulling up the musical he had stuck in his head all day. The Color Purple played from the speakers and Joao let out an honest-to-god squeal, surprising both Mehmet and Alexander.

They smiled wide and laughed.

“I haven’t heard this in years! You’ve got great taste, I hope you don’t mind if I belt the whole thing!”

Alexander laughed and responded in kind - by singing along as the overture ended and the first verse started.

He caught a glimpse of Mehmet staring wide-eyed at Joao with awe, before he went back to his job of making sure nobody was following them.

* * *

The first store brought them no luck, and the second only came up with a solitary full-mesh shirt that looked like something out of an 80's American catalog.

The third gave some interesting results, though.

The cashier near the front of the store jumped at the sight of Alexander and Mehmet, surely not expecting some sort of celebrity to wander in off the streets, and her eyebrows shot up behind her red bangs when she saw Joao. They smiled and ran over to her with a wave and wink back to the boys. They leaned on the counter to chat up who must have been an old friend, but Alexander’s gaze drifted to something more peculiar.

He could see a tidy mop of blond hair drifting among the aisles of clothes, and the distinct sound of teenagers giggling.

“You can look around too, Mehmet. I think gorilla might be around nearby cause it looks like Adrien really has been taking my friendship advice to heart.”

Mehmet snorted and began inspecting a rack of jackets near the front, where he could keep track of who came in and out of the shop. Alexander made his way over to the group of kids in the skirt section.

“Look at this fabric, Mari! You could make cute patches with it! I mean, it’s hideous as a solid piece, but little bits of it would be adorable!”

“I could make us matching jackets with patches on them!”

The two girls in the group giggled, and Adrien smiled softly at them. The only kid of the group that noticed Alexander’s approach was playing loud music through the headphones around his neck, and he had to do a double take before he realized who he was.

“Looks like you guys are having fun. This shop doing it for ya, Adrien?” He asked with a smile as he came up behind Adrien, who startled and squeaked in surprise.

“Alexander!” He cried. His friends looked up at him in various levels of surprise and awe.

“These your friends? They look nice! Hi, I’m Alexander Rojas.” He extended his hand to the other boy, who turned down his music and shook his hand slowly.

“Uh, I’m Nino. Are you taking Adrien back home? He said he had the day off...”

“Oh! No, I wouldn’t do that to you guys!” He waved his hands in front of him as soon as he let go of Nino’s hand. “I’m trying to prove a point to Gabriel about the resourcefulness of thrift stores.” He looked at his phone, which had a picture of the mesh he needed and sighed. “So, if you’re Nino, you must be Alya and Marinette, right? Adrien talks about you guys a lot, it’s sweet.”

“Alexander.” Adrien hissed, turning red. The girl with black hair, who he assumed was Marinette, had got very red as well, and was muttering to herself. Alya gave her a knowing look.

“What? Your dad doesn’t tease you, so I assumed I had to.”

“Uh, that’s like the only thing I don’t mind?”

Alexander smiled and ruffled his hair a little bit. He shrunk out of his touch, and he didn’t move to touch the boy again.

“Let me properly introduce myself!” The girl with reddish hair said with excitement. “I’m Alya, I’m in the same class as Adrien, Marinette, and Nino, and I run the ladyblog!”

He laughed, then stopped once he realized she was serious. “What’s the ladyblog?”

Her jaw dropped.

“One of the most popular blogs in Paris? I cover every akuma attack and do exclusive interviews with ladybug! It’s like the go-to site for anything about the city’s heroes!”

“Oh. Yeah, um, I follow political blogs more than superhero blogs? I guess I’m just another boring adult.”

Her shoulders slumped, but her smile didn’t drop.

“That’s ok, I know it’s not like everyone in the world reads it.”

Alexander fidgeted a bit, trying not to give in to his narcissistic urge, then gave up fighting it.

“But top site for hero stuff? That’s pretty impressive! What are your thoughts on the Butterfly Knight? I’m sure you’ve got some interesting opinions.”

Alya’s face lit up as soon as he started asking questions. Adrien folded his arms and huffed a little, but was distracted by Nino and Marinette as they started looking through more clothes. No doubt they had heard all of these thoughts before, being friends with Alya and all.

“He’s like an anti-hero! Though I can’t say I like him much, I don’t think I could ever really fear him, you know? He’s definitely one of the most complex akuma out there, and the fact that he is the only villain out there that escapes Ladybug and Chat proves that Hawkmoth is probably getting stronger, or at least taking on new tactics. I think it’s been a long time coming, he’s gotten close to defeating them in the past, but he had gotten so repetitive before the Knight, and that makes for a boring dynamic.”

Marinette looked over in surprise. Maybe she hadn’t heard this deep into Alya’s thoughts yet.

“But this is real life, not a comic book, you know.”

“Exactly! People in real life learn from their mistakes, not do the same things over and over! If he did the same thing every time, it’d be ok for like, a kid’s show, but assuming Hawkmoth is a fully capable human being, he should be able to figure out that what he’s doing just doesn’t work!”

He couldn’t help it; Alexander burst out laughing and had to double over and cover his mouth to quiet himself. When he finally recovered, he stood up and smiled down at her baffled expression.

“That is probably the single best thing I have heard about Hawkmoth, ever. And it helps that you are so right.” She smiled “fuck, you’re good at analyzing things. Wanna write all my speeches for me?”

She pushed up her glasses and straightened proudly. “Only if I get to read them instead of you.”

He laughed again and nodded.

“Fair enough. I guess I should write my own stuff.”

He smiled at the kids, then checked the time and cursed.

“Sorry, I forgot I’m on a time limit. If you guys find any mesh fabric in here please tell me, cause I need a lot to win this debate.”

He waved bye to the kids, then ran over to the shirt section to start his hunt properly.

* * *

With the occasional help from the kids, Alexander had a good amount of various shirts, skirts, and dresses that all had mesh worked into them. In the car back to the mansion, he cut the mesh from the rest of the outfits, and maybe he didn’t have exactly five feet, but it would prove his point well enough.

His work was interrupted when Joao slammed on the breaks and yelled “Shit!”

He looked out through the windshield and saw an akuma in the middle of the road, staring their car down. Alexander’s magic pulsed through his veins so hard he could hear and feel it. It left his skin tingling like static, and had a low hum. The akuma was wearing something like white knight armor, but it wasn’t anything like his, which was more like a beetle. Maybe it was a statement against the Butterfly Knight.

“Alexander Rojas! I am Prince Fashion! I am the one who deserves your position, give it to me or face the consequences!”

Alexander leaned over the console to talk to Mehmet and Joao.

“Is this guy for real?”

Mehmet looked surprised.

“That’s right, you haven’t been in the middle of an akuma attack yet.” Alexander had to hold back a snicker at that. “Honestly most of them are pretty damn petty, but some of them are truly dangerous.”

“Open the sun roof.”

Joao grabbed his arm. “Are you sure? We don’t know what he does.”

“Trust me, I’ll be fine.” He smiled, and they let go to push the button to open the window above them.

Alexander stood up and rested his elbows on the roof of the car.

“What exactly do you want?” He asked.

“It should be me as Gabriel Agreste’s intern! Give me your internship! I deserve it more than you!”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then you’ll get a taste of this!”

He took his wand, which had been on his belt, and shot a beam at a nearby car. The car was turned into a pile of red yarn.

“Ok.”

“What?”

Mehmet and Joao grabbed at him as he climbed out of the sun roof and slid down the hood. Mehmet was out of the car, but Alexander gave him pause when he winked at him.

“I just have some questions.”

The akuma looked confused.

“Do you have a portfolio I could look at? It’s important for us to know what you can do. I’m not gonna give the position over to someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing.”

“Oh, um, it’s on my phone, is that...”

“That’s fine, let me see.” He said with a reassuring smile. The akuma reached into his pocket and pushed a few buttons before handing it over.

“Just, uh, swipe left to look through the photos.” He said, and Alexander nodded.

The designs and actual clothes he had made were actually pretty amazing, he couldn’t deny. Elegant dresses, odd shoes, and suits of every design filled the portfolio. There were some series of process pictures, where a girl modeled the half finished outfits.

“Wow, these are amazing!” He cried without a trace of sarcasm.

“Really?”

“Yeah, I mean, these platform shoes? Are you growing plants in them?”

He lit up. “Yeah! They’re sustainable! And you can walk in them, I just need more resources to make them more comfortable.”

“Yeah, this stuff is so cool. This dress that has a layer of flowers in the skirt? That’s really hard to do. Do you like working nature into all your work?”

“Yeah, um, my sister inspired me. She loves plants, but is bad at gardening, always kills any plants she tries to grow, so I started putting flowers into my designs so she could have plants she doesn’t have to worry about killing.”

Alexander nodded, but frowned.

“I just don’t think it’ll fit with what we are doing right now. We’re doing a really experimental thing right now, and it needs to be super hush hush, and none of this is really... like our vision.

Something clicked, and Alexander looked up, only to be face to face with the tip of the wand. It was buzzing.

“That’s not to say that it’s the end of the world for you though. Actually, your work with nature reminds me of a designer from Spain. Octavian Rashiem? Ever heard of him?”

The akuma shook his head and dropped his wand slightly.

“He does stuff similar to this, I bet he’d love to work with you. Especially with a note from Gabriel.”

“Wait, Really? You’d do that?”

“Sure, it shouldn’t be that hard, and I kinda really need this job too. Wouldn’t it be better if we were both happy?”

The akuma smiled, then shuffled awkwardly. “Uh, What now?”

“Could I see that wand?”

He handed over his wand, and Alexander gripped it tight. The magic was reacting with his own, and it made his hand feel like a big lump of pins and needles. The wand’s magic desperately wanted to join his own.

“Do you apologize for threatening to turn me into yarn?”

“Yeah...”

“So you aren’t mad anymore?”

“Yeah, that whole thing was kinda stupid?”

“Nah, You were just angry. It’s ok.”

He broke the wand in half, and in the same motion, he let the dark akuma energy enter his body to merge with his own. The akuma went back to an awkward, lanky guy covered in freckles, and the butterfly that left the wand was white.

“Holy shit!” Mehmet shouted from where he stood, half inside and half outside the car. He had a hand in his hair, gripping it tight out of stress, and the other holding onto the car door so hard his knuckles were turning white. Joao was hunched over the steering wheel, possibly hyperventilating. The man was staring at Alexander, mouth agape.

“I thought your eyes were hazel. Why are they orange?” Before Alexander could reply, there was a distinct ‘ziiiip!’ From above, and a moment later Ladybug landed between Alexander and the man who was previously an akuma.

“Don’t worry, you’re safe now!” She said, then paused and stared at the awkward man. She blinked in rapid succession, as if he was an illusion. Then turned to Alexander.

“What?”

He laughed and rubbed the back of his head.

“Sorry to steal your job, but it was an easy fix. Just had to talk to him a bit, find another solution. We’re all adults here, we don’t have to be reduced to violence, right buddy?”

He looked over to the other guy, who nodded shyly and blushed.

“I’m so sorry about that.”

“It’s ok, I understand where you were coming from.”

“I’m here my lady! What’s the- what the fuck?” Chat crashed into the road beside them into the pile of yarn that used to be a car, and looked around in confusion.

“Ladybug, can you revert his damage? It looks like things don’t go back to normal unless you do your thing, and the person probably doesn’t have insurance that covers... Uh... yarn damage?”

The heroes look at the yarn Chat was now tangled in, and then back at Alexander.

“But how did you fix him?” Chat asked with narrowed eyes.

“I just, uh, figured that once the negative emotions that seemed to be fueling him were taken care of, the akuma would loose power. Isn’t that how they work? Emotions?”

Chat and Ladybug looked at each other in surprise, and Alexander continued to try to cover himself.

“I mean, I just recently checked out the ladyblog? Adrien’s friend runs it so I figured I should look at it, and that seemed to be a reoccurring theme. I’m not saying give all akuma what they want, especially not when they want to like, kill someone, but... emotions are tough.” He sighed, and realized the heroes, the ex-akuma, and Mehmet were all giving him odd looks.

“I just...” He continued in a smaller voice, “don’t think we should be punished for feeling negative emotions.”

Ladybug raised her eyebrows then frowned and seemed to be thinking.

“Okay... um, well Chat, how about you take this guy to the police so he can talk to a counselor, and I’ll fix up things here. Thank you for... whatever it is you did, Alexander.” She watched Chat guide the other man away, then turned to him with a wide grin. “Um! T-tell Adrien hi for me, ok?!”

He nodded and gave her a thumbs up before turning back to the car. Mehmet was instantly at his side and hugging him hard.

“Never do that again! You nearly died! Do you want to give me and Joao heart attacks?” He cried, and Joao honked the car horn in agreement.

“Okay, okay, just... let’s get back so we aren’t doing this in the middle of the street.” Alexander said calmly as he patted Mehmet’s shoulder. He pulled away and wiped his eyes, pushed his glasses up, and nodded. He opened the back door for Alexander, and after Joao took some deep breaths, they were back on the road.

And Alexander was finally letting himself get angry.

* * *

Funny thing about growing up in an abusive home, Alexander’s emotions were never allowed to be shown. At least, not the ‘bad’ ones. He couldn’t cry, couldn’t scream, couldn’t show that he was anything but compliant, else he risked starting a violent debate with his dad while his mother stood idly by, happy to not do anything if it meant she didn’t get hurt.

It was hard for him to express his emotions, but in recent months, with the therapy of beating up assholes on the street, he could handle having outbursts without feeling guilty immediately afterwards.

So the moment he threw open the doors of Gabriel’s office, it didn’t surprise him that the rage that had formed during the car ride all bubbled up and came out as a scream.

“What the fuck was that?!” He yelled as he threw down his pile of mesh. “Why the fuck would you send an Akuma after me?”

Gabriel was sitting calmly at his desk as if he hadn’t just put Alexander in danger.

“It’s to protect you. If you are attacked by an akuma you are less likely to be suspected of being one yourself.”

“What if something happened? What if I didn’t talk him down?” He yelled back with a foot stomp.

“Then Ladybug would have fixed it. She always seems to do that.”

“Yeah? But what if he got what he wanted and took me out of the picture? Has an akuma ever gotten what they wanted? What if he reverted and I was stuck? What if I got stuck as a pile of yarn? You’re so stuck in your own world that you don’t think about real world consequences!”

“I am doing the best thing for us, Alexander!” Gabriel snapped back, “I’ve put myself in danger just the same, I even akumatized myself before I met you, and it took Ladybug off my trail. I was trying to do the same for you!”

“You don’t get to make those decisions for other people, Gabe! What would you have done if I had died? I wouldn’t be surprised if you never thought of anyone but yourself; I mean, just open your eyes and see how miserable Adrien is! There’s no excuse in the world for the way you ignore him!” He screamed. Tears were forming at the edges of his eyes and his hands were balled into fists so tight he might have been drawing blood. He couldn’t tell for certain, since all he could feel was the angry heat racing through his veins. Gabriel stood up with a scowl.

“You don’t get to tell me how I raise my son. I’m sorry if you’re upset, but there is no reason to attack my parenting because of it.”

“Ha! Is that what you call parenting? Could’ve fooled me, cause the only time I’ve ever seen him even remotely happy was when he wasn’t around you!” He kicked the pile of mesh at his feet. “Here’s your stupid fucking fabric! If you need me, don’t!”

He pivoted and slammed the office doors behind him, and stalked stiffly down the hall to his room. He had the excess energy to write that speech now, and if it were more emotionally charged than was normally professional, Gabriel could go screw himself. He had the language now, and he had many choice words to send to both Gabriel and the mayor.

In his anger, he missed Adrien standing shocked at the foot of the stairs; wide eyed from overhearing the trail end of their fight.

* * *

The tension between Gabriel and Alexander was palpable anytime they were in the same room. Anyone from employees to Adrien and his friends could tell, but no one knew how they could fix it. Mostly because no one knew the entire reason why they fought. Gabriel was too proud to apologize, or even see anything but his side, and Alexander spent all of his free time writing. Drafts of the speech were scattered across his room, some half finished, some scribbled over, but most smeared from him getting overwhelmed and breaking down, over and over.

Seeing Adrien happy with friends had hit him hard. The attack was just a cherry on top, but suddenly seeing how Adrien was normally so happy when not at home was a shock to his system. It reminded him of himself, even before he realized he was trans. Perhaps the situation wasn’t the exact same, but both their fathers were pretty shitty.

He hadn’t left his room to go to classes today, it was nearing 4:00, and he hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast.

The lead of his pencil snapped as he pressed it hard into the paper, and he sat back with a sigh. He ran a hand through his hair, groaned, and grabbed a button up shirt to throw on as he left his room.

Adrien had gotten back about half an hour ago, so hopefully he wasn’t too busy to have a little chat.

As he adjusted the collar of the light orange shirt, he knocked on Adrien’s door quietly.

The teen opened the door and stared at him oddly, and he just smiled softly.

“Hey buddy, I haven’t had lunch and was wanted to talk to you... would you mind grabbing a bite with me?”

Adrien looked up and down the hallway, as if it was a trick and someone was going to jump out a yell “psyche!” But when nothing besides Alexander seemed amiss, he grabbed a jacket and followed him out.

Alexander had texted Joao before hand, because he would be getting food whether or not Adrien agreed to join him, so they and Mehmet were waiting for them outside. Adrien nodded to them both shyly, and Mehmet waved before adjusting his glasses and opening the car door for them.

In the car, Alexander just leaned his head back and sighed.

“What did you want to talk about?”

He shook his head. “I don’t want to talk until I have food in my hands.” He flexed his hands as if he were holding something, and Adrien gave a small laugh. “Tell me about your day instead.”

“Uh, it was ok. School’s boring but I get to be with my friends and it beats being home all the time.”

“How’re your friends? Alya have any new theories? I liked talking with her.”

“There hasn’t been a lot of activity lately, especially not with the Butterfly Knight, so there hasn’t been much she can go on. Um, I think she’s worried that she’s gonna miss an attack cause she’s getting out of practice without any action.” He said with a smile.

“Well to be fair, the heroes and villains will probably be out of shape too.” Alexander replied with a listless wave of his hand.

“Alexander, we’re here.” Joao said gently.

“Oh thank fuck.” He paused and looked at Adrien as he reached for the door. “Don’t say fuck. Not until you’re sixteen.”

Adrien snorted and grinned up at him as they stepped into the sun again. He faltered when he saw where they were.

“McDonald’s? Alexander, we can afford better food than this, you know that right?”

“You aren’t appreciative of the healing factor of terrible, greasy food. I really need this.”

He followed Alexander into the fast food joint and was almost overwhelmed by the conflicting smells of disinfectant and grease.

“Do you want anything? I’m paying.”

“Just... a soda’s fine.”

Alexander nodded and pointed over to a booth in the corner that sat next to the window that looked out to the car that Mehmet and Joao were leaning against, watching who went in and out.

He sat and watched them for a few minutes. They were talking, not quite looking at each other, but occasionally they would bump shoulders or laugh at something the other said.

He was snapped out of watching them when Alexander dropped a tray of food on the table, scooted in across from him, and slid a medium coke his way. He took a sip as he watched him unwrap a burger and groan into the first bite.

“You remind me of myself.” Alexander finally said after a few bites, and the statement was so sudden and so unexpected that Adrien actually flinched and forgot what he said for a moment.

“What?”

“Not me right now, but what I had to deal with growing up. It’s... not the same, but.” He avoided continuing his sentence by taking another bite.

“So your dad was some rich guy with emotional issues too?” Adrien finally asked when he realized that Alexander was transfixed on his food.

“Nope. I was poor until Gabriel hired me.”

“Wait, Really?”

“I don’t know a thing about fashion. I’m learning. But I helped your dad with a really weird problem he had and this was him paying me back. It’s fucking bizarre.”

“What was the problem?”

Alexander shrugged and hunched over his food as he shoveled some fries into his mouth and gestured to Adrien that he could take some too. It was an odd sight: seeing a man in a suit -minus the jacket- in the back booth of a McDonald’s, stuffing his face with what must have been a pound of fat. In that moment, Adrien thought he could have understood surrealism by watching the scene unfold.

“How I got here isn’t important. What I wanted to talk to you about is how I grew up, and I need you to understand that i’ll always be on your side.”

“Why?”

“I’m a survivor of child abuse. My dad was an asshole, and my mom was emotionally distant at all the wrong times. I’ve got scars to prove it, but showing you in a McDonald’s might get me arrested for public indecency.”

“Alexander, I-“

“No, it’s not about me. That happened, it sucked, I’m better than him and I hope I will never be like him. This is about you. Your dad hasn’t been there for you in any way that he should be.”

“It... he used to be better.” Adrien muttered, and Alexander finally put his burger down - what little there was left of it.

“Yeah?”

“Mom died, and he closed himself off. I guess he’s mourning?”

“And you’re not?”

“Huh?”

Alexander rubbed his forehead. “Christ... that’s what I’m saying. He had a kid, he should have put you first. Emotions suck but it’s better to deal with them together than alone. I think he’s been treating me so well because he doesn’t know how to reach out to you anymore. It sucks.”

“You... don’t want his attention?”

“Not if it means you get left behind. Sometimes I’m an asshole, but I’m not going to be a dick to a kid who’s dad isn’t there for him. Want a fry?”

Adrien grabbed a few fries and watched Alexander finish off his burger.

“Alexander?”

“Hmm?”

“Why did you come to my dad in the first place?”

“I’ll tell you why I didn’t come, I definitely didn’t show up to steal him from you.” He joked, and Adrien laughed. They smiled at each other, perhaps not on the same wavelength yet, but they both felt the solidarity that was formed between the two of them. For once, Adrien had an adult on his side.

“I’ll tell you why I showed up later, when you’re a little older. It’s a Uh... really personal thing that I’m not comfortable sharing right now, in the back of a McDonald’s.

Adrien laughed and nodded, and they got up to leave. Alexander tucked his fries in his pocket as he threw out his trash, and he ruffled Adrien’s hair as he held the door open for him.

“Oh! I totally forgot!” He said once they were back in the car. Adrien looked at him and glanced back at the McDonald’s, in case he had left something inside.

“Last week after I ran into you guys at the thrift store I ran into Ladybug, and she told me to tell you hi! I didn’t know you knew her!”

“She did?” He asked as his face flushed.

“Yep, she seemed nice. Kinda young for a super hero, though.”

“What makes you say that?”

“She only came up to my chest! Though I guess some people are just small.” He shrugged. “It’s cute that she wanted me to tell you hi, though. It’s sweet, you two must be good friends.”

Adrien grinned dreamily and nodded as he turned to look out the window.

“You could say that.”

Alexander smiled at him and looked out his own window. They fell into a comfortable silence for the rest of the ride.

* * *

Alexander let himself get lost in his work. Mehmet was the only reason he ate, due to the fact he brought him food, and somewhere in the haze of overworking himself, he forgot why he wasn’t talking to Gabriel.

Of course, this didn’t mean he started talking to him again. He only forgot why he was mad, because he forgot that Gabriel lived in the same house as him. He didn’t leave his room, so he never saw his boss.

That self-destructive pattern halted when Gabriel wandered into his room as he was muttering his speech back to himself.

“I’ve never had someone avoid me for so long.” He said, breaking Alexander’s concentration, and making him jump in his seat.

“Wha- who?” He turned and squinted at Gabriel in confusion as he stood awkwardly in the middle of his room.

“Avoid?”

“Isn’t That What you’ve been doing for the past month?”

“Month? No, no, I’m working, see. It’s only been a few days.”

Gabriel blinked quickly, and turned his attention to the piles of scrap paper littering the floor. Alexander followed his gaze and let out a surprised squeak. His hands went to his hair - which was far longer than he preferred - and grimaced.

“Oh fuck. I did it again.”

“Alexander, are you okay?” Gabriel asked softly. This certainly wasn’t how he expected things to go. He shook his head and sighed.

“What day is it?”

“November fifth.”

He moved his hands from his hair to his face and groaned.

“I’m so sorry. Sometimes I get so involved in my work that the rest of the world just... isn’t a thing for me. I just work and sleep, eat if someone gives me food, but I don’t seek it out...”

“I wanted to say sorry as well.” Gabriel admitted after a moment. Alexander lifted his head and looked confused.

“I shouldn’t have gotten mad at you for pointing out my... faults.” He walked forward and leaned against his desk, and idly read one of the scrapped speeches.

“You could have hurt me...” Alexander started slowly, as he tried to recall. “But that’s not what I was really mad at.”

He nodded. “It wasn’t until I saw you with Adrien that I realized what really had hit your nerves.”

“You saw that?”

He nodded and sighed. “I should have known better. Considering your history with your parents, I shouldn’t have been so quick to defend my parenting. You’re the one with experience with abuse.”

Alexander just stared up at him. He wasn’t quite completely out of the odd state he had reverted into, and his hand itched to keep writing, but that was rude to do when someone was spilling their guts to you.

“Alexander, I don’t say this easily, or often, but I’m sorry.”

He glanced at his work and scratched at his face. He had so much to say, but not here. It was for the speech. He twitched a little and looked up at Gabriel again.

“I need to finish this. I can’t think about all of that until I finish this.”

Gabriel frowned and gave the overflowing garbage can another glance.

“When I’m done with this, I’ll talk. But I’m so fucking close, I can’t get out of the swing of things now.”

He was silent, then sighed. “A few more days. But I can’t have my intern be unavailable.”

He nodded and was already back to exiting and writing before Gabriel was out the door.

* * *

When Gabriel came into his room three days later, after getting sick of waiting, he found a full speech printed out and in a clean binder on the desk, and Alexander passed out cold on his bed. He must have gone straight to bed after finishing, and Gabriel wondered how much he actually slept while working.

He gently shook Alexander awake, and he groaned as his eyes fluttered open.

“Mom?”

Gabriel snorted, and Alexander blinked quickly in response to the sound, and looked up.

“Oh, whoops.”

“I assume you’re done?”

“Yeah, I Uh, I finished it like yesterday I think? What day is it?”

“November eighth.”

Alexander rubbed his eyes as he sat up and yawned.

“How much sleep did you get all month?”

He seemed confused by the question, like it wasn’t something he would normally consider.

“I dunno. I slept when I would pass out at my desk.”

Gabriel sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“I’m not letting you do this to yourself again. I don’t care what kind of results you give, I can’t have you wearing yourself so thin.”

“I don’t even realize I do it. I just know I can’t stop.”

Gabriel kneeled besides the bed.

“Alexander, I’m sorry.”

“For... uh... what?”

“You were out of it when I came in before, but you need to know that I am truly sorry for disregarding your feelings before. Attacking you unprompted was stupid, and I... haven’t been the best parent.”

“What have you been doing the past month?”

Gabriel looked away and ran a hand through his hair.

“Some might call it brooding.”

Alexander scowled.

“Then I’m not the person you need to apologize to.”

“What?” Gabriel looked at him in surprise, and Alexander stood. He wobbled slightly from the head rush.

“You need to apologize to Adrien, not me. He’s the person you’ve been terrible to.”

“He would never take it well. I’ve tried to reach out to him-“

“So?”

“Excuse me?”

“If he doesn’t accept your apology, you accept that he doesn’t. Just cause you say sorry doesn’t ensure forgiveness. Take the criticism and move on to be better.” He moved to his bathroom as he sniffed himself and cringed. “I’m gonna take a two hour shower. I feel like death.”

Gabriel stared after him long after he closed the bathroom door and the shower turned on, and pressed his mouth into a thin line. As he considered Alexander’s words, he kicked balled up scripts towards the desk to pile them up and make for easier cleaning.

Downstairs, the front door opened and slammed shut, and Adrien walked by the room a few moments later. He glanced his way, and paused.

“Is Alexander okay?”

Gabriel stared for a moment, then smiled softly. “It seems so. He’s taking a shower.”

Adrien nodded, and continued to him room.

Seeing his son brought back a memory from the year before, and perhaps it wasn’t the dots he was supposed to connect, but the switches had been flipped, and a plan was bubbling deep inside of him.

* * *

When Alexander was out of the shower and had wandered into his office, Gabriel smiled and gestured to the chair in front of his desk. When Alexander was sitting and paying attention, he clasped his hands on the desk and gave Alexander a very short rundown.

“I want the Butterfly Knight to have a sidekick, and I know exactly who it should be.”


End file.
